Shell Australia, a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell plc, has signed an agreement to sell its 16.67% non-operated interest in the North West Shelf (NWS) project. The interest will be acquired by wholly owned subsidiaries of XRG P.J.S.C. for a base consideration of US$1.45 billion, subject to customary adjustments, plus an additional milestone-linked contingent payment.
'This agreement reflects our commitment to disciplined capital allocation and portfolio choices,' said Cederic Cremers, Shell’s Integrated Gas President. 'The sale realises value from a mature, non-operated asset and supports Shell’s strategy by focusing investment on advantaged integrated gas positions, as NWS transitions in the future towards a third-party toll-processing model. We are proud of the role we played as a founding partner in NWS and the role NWS has in turn played in Western Australia.'
Shell continues to invest in LNG and integrated gas globally and will grow LNG sales by 4-5% per year to 2030.
Shell maintains a strong presence in Australia, where it operates the Shell QGC project and Prelude FLNG, is developing the Crux project and is a joint venture partner in Arrow Energy and Gorgon.
The transaction has an effective date of 1 January, 2026, and is expected to close in 2027, subject to several conditions precedent, including regulatory approvals
Background
- The NWS project is an LNG and domestic gas development located in Western Australia comprising a number of interconnected joint ventures involving Woodside, Chevron, BP, Shell, MIMI and CNOOC.
- Shell’s 16.67% interest includes associated upstream interests, pipeline and midstream infrastructure. Shell’s interest also covers varying participating interests in related petroleum and pipeline titles, project agreements, offtake arrangements, NWS project companies, and CNOOC-related joint ventures.
- Declining production from the original NWS fields has created capacity at the project’s Karratha Gas Plant and NWS is moving to a mixed resource-production and third-party toll-processing business.
- In 2023, Shell sold its interest in the Browse project, a proposed offshore gas development whose concept involves piping gas from the Browse Basin to Karratha for processing and export through existing NWS infrastructure.
- The deal includes buyers assuming decommissioning obligations and providing security with respect to such obligations.
- XRG P.J.S.C. is an international energy investment company focused on building a global portfolio across natural gas, chemicals and energy solutions.
Source: Shell
