Shell is seeking a buyer for a 20 per cent stake in its Brazilian oilfield cluster to help fund a multibillion-dollar offshore development, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing sources.
Shell declined to comment on the report, when contacted by Reuters.
Shell held a 50 per cent stake in Gato do Mato, which is a deepwater project offshore Brazil, and acquired a further 20 per cent stake in the project from TotalEnergies in June.
Shell is now seeking to raise funds while remaining the project’s operator, the report added, citing people familiar with the matter.
Gato do Mato, which has a capacity of 120,000 barrels of oil per day, is a key asset to Shell’s wider goal of maintaining a position among Brazil’s largest oil producers.
Shell along with Petrobras had also secured two offshore areas in Brazil’s Mero and Atapu fields in an oil auction held last week by state-run firm PPSA.
The two fields at Gato do Mato, which were renamed Orca and Sul de Orca after they were declared commercial, account for about 10 per cent of Shell’s Brazil portfolio, the report said, citing Welligence.
(Reporting by DhanushVignesh Babu and in Bengaluru and Stephanie Kelly in London; Editing by Tasim Zahid and Shailesh Kuber)
