Shell Sells Stake in Three Nigerian Oil Licenses

Royal Dutch Shell said it has agreed to sell its stake in three onshore oil licenses in Nigeria to a consortium consisting of two local firms and France's Maurel & Prom.

The sale, which must be approved by the Nigerian government, is for oil mining leases 4, 38, 41 located in the northwestern part of the Niger Delta and includes 30 wells with a production capacity of around 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

The Anglo-Dutch giant said the sale was part of its "active portfolio management" of global interests and that it remained committed to Nigeria. But the move comes as political uncertainty is clouding the country's investment climate.

"This sale of assets supports the Nigerian government's goal of expanding opportunities for local energy companies," Mutiu Sunmonu, managing director of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, said in a statement.

"We have been in Nigeria for more than 50 years and remain committed to doing business here," he said.

Shell is Nigeria's oldest foreign oil partner, with onshore facilities including more than 6,000 km of flowlines and pipelines, 90 oil fields and 1,000 producing wells.

The interests it has sold to Nigeria's Seplat Petroleum are in three licenses which are not producing and represent a fraction of its overall presence in Nigeria.

Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua has been in Saudi Arabia for the past two months receiving medical treatment but has not formally transferred power to his deputy, leading to challenges to the legality of government decisions.

The uncertainty has delayed the passage through parliament of legislation to overhaul the country's oil industry and risks derailing an amnesty program in the Niger Delta, where thousands of gunmen last year agreed to lay down their weapons.