STATEMENT BY ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC: NAM to divest several offshore assets

Wednesday 17 October 2007

Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM) intends to market a number of its offshore licences, consisting of producing fields in the NOGAT area on the Dutch continental shelf. The producing fields are L2-FA, L2-FB, L5-FA, L12-FC and L15-FA, and the combined oil and gas producing F3-FB field.  

The fields and facilities to be divested are located in an area of the North Sea to the northwest of Den Helder and are interconnected by the NOGAT pipeline, through which natural gas is transported to the NAM operated processing plant at Den Helder.  NAM also intends to divest its share in NOGAT.

The intended transfer of ownership is part of NAM’s long-term strategy. This step will not lead to a reduction in overall employment, due to the fact that this will occur within the framework of the Netherlands Transfer of Undertakings Act (Wet Overgang Ondernemingen, WOO), safeguarding the employment of the 20-30 staff involved. Consultations regarding the sale are presently ongoing with the NAM Staff Council.

NAM Managing Director Roelf Venhuizen said: “Like every healthy company, we regularly review our portfolio to ensure that the assets we own fit our company strategy. The NAM of course will continue to operate the Groningen-field. Further we will continue to produce and develop our small-fields portfolio for as long as we can add value. The divestment of the mentioned fields and facilities is completely aligned with NAM’s long-term strategy and as they are in a mature phase of their life cycle, they may have more value to third parties than to NAM.”

The intended sale does not imply that NAM will discontinue its North Sea operations, as is evidenced by the fact that NAM continues to make substantial investments in its offshore activities. An example is the current further development of the L9 block, involving a total investment of several hundred million Euros.

Additional information:
 
Marjolein Boer, NAM Media Relations: +31 (0)592 368222 Shell International Media Relations: Tel: +44 (0)20 7934 3505

Background information:

The F3-FB field is located in the Dutch sector of the North Sea, approximately 210 km to the north of Den Helder. The field was discovered in 1973 and commenced oil and gas production in October 1993.

The L2-FA field was discovered in 1968 and production commenced in 1992 from platform L2-FA-1. The L2-FB field was discovered in 1976 and brought into production in 2006 from the same platform.

The L5-FA field was discovered in 1988 and was also taken into production in 1992.

The L15-FA-1 platform, situated to the north of the islands of Texel and Vlieland, has been producing gas from the L15-FA field since 1993. The L12-FC field produces via the same platform.

German and Danish gas has been transported to the F3 FB platform since 2004, from where this gas is shipped to Den Helder via the NOGAT pipeline.

The total daily gas production from the platforms amounts to some 5.4 mln m3 per day; oil production amounts to some 1,700 barrels per day (amounts are in Normal cubic meters of natural gas and barrels of 159 litres oil).

About NAM:

Established in 1947, NAM (the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij B.V.) is active in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas in the Netherlands and the Dutch part of the Continental Shelf. Equally owned by Shell and ExxonMobil, NAM is by far the largest producer of natural gas in the Netherlands, with an annual production amounting to nearly three-quarters of all natural gas produced from Dutch soil. In 2006, NAM produced over 53 billion cubic metres of natural gas and 430,000 cubic metres of oil.

About half of the natural gas produced by NAM each year comes from the large Groningen gas field (‘Slochteren’). The other half is produced from small gas fields located onshore and in the North Sea. NAM also has underground gas storage facilities in Grijpskerk, in the Province of Groningen, and Langelo (Norg field) in the Province of Drenthe.

NAM, headquartered in Assen, The Netherlands, employs about 1800 people.

For more information about NAM: www.nam.nl 

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