MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell will sell its French liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) business for about 464 million euros (USD519 million) to DCC Energy, adding to more than USD2 billion of disposals this year following the collapse in oil prices, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The Butagaz unit will give DCC Energy a quarter of France’s LPG market and make it Europe’s third-largest distributor of the fuel, it said in a statement Tuesday. Shell is exiting the LPG business globally and focusing its refining and fuel marketing operations on smaller areas, it said in a separate statement.
Shell CEO Ben Van Beurden is speeding up asset sales and spending curbs to cope with a slump in oil prices. The Anglo-Dutch company has sold oil fields in Nigeria, axed a USD6.5 billion petrochemicals plant in Qatar and stalled a liquefied natural-gas (LNG) project in Australia.
In January, Shell said that it would cut USD15 billion of investments over the next three years and curtail exploration.
DCC Energy is part of Dublin, Ireland-based DCC, which operates energy, technology and health care businesses. DCC rose 9.6% to 4,811 pence by 8:47 a.m. in London. Shell’s B shares, the most widely traded, dropped 0.2%. The deal is expected to be completed this year. Shell will continue its aviation fuel and lubricants businesses in France.
Royal Dutch Shell plc (Shell) is an independent oil and gas company, based in the United Kingdom. It operates in three segments: Upstream, Downstream and Corporate. Upstream combines the operating segments Upstream International and Upstream Americas, which are engaged in searching for and recovering crude oil and natural gas, the liquefaction and transportation of gas, the extraction of bitumen from oil sands and converting it into synthetic crude oil, and wind energy. Downstream segment is engaged in manufacturing, distribution and marketing activities for oil products and chemicals. Royal Dutch Shell said that its earnings for the first quarter fell by 56 percent compared with a year earlier.
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