Florence Tan: October 4, 2017SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) said on Wednesday it has cancelled a $900 million deal to sell its gas field stakes in Thailand to Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC).
Shell and KUFPEC announced the deal in January, and it was due to be completed in the first quarter of 2017.
“Although Shell and the Thai government have worked together closely and collaboratively on the matter, the different interpretations of the treatment of share sale transactions were not resolved within Shell and KUFPEC’s agreed timeframe,” a Shell spokeswoman said in an e-mail.
“Therefore, both parties jointly decided to terminate the transaction,” she said.
The sale was part of efforts by the Anglo-Dutch company to reduce debt after buying smaller rival BG Group for $70 billion.
“To date, the company has more than $25 billion in completed, announced or in progress divestments, on track to meet its target of $30 billion of divestments between 2016 and 2018,” Shell said in a statement.
The deal had called for Shell to divest its shares in two subsidiaries – Shell Integrated Gas Thailand Pte Ltd (SIGT) and Thai Energy Co Ltd (TEC) – to KUFPEC’s unit in Thailand.
SIGT and TEC together hold a 22.222 percent equity stake in the Bongkot natural gas field and adjoining acreages offshore Thailand consisting of blocks 15, 16, 17 and G12/48.
PTT Exploration and Production PCL (PTTEP.BK) operates the offshore Bongkot field with a 44.445-percent equity. France’s Total (TOTF.PA) has a 33.333 percent stake.
Besides continuing to support operations and development at Bongkot, SIGT also intends to participate in the forthcoming licensing round for the extension of the Bongkot concession, Shell said.
“Having almost met its $30 billion divestment target, there’s no longer the same pressure on Shell to sell,” said Andrew Harwood, research director of Asia Pacific upstream oil and gas at Wood Mackenzie.
“Thailand remains a small but profitable part of Shell’s portfolio in Southeast Asia,” he said.
“With the Bongkot concession set to expire in 2023, we’d expect Shell and the other Bongkot partners to bid in the upcoming auction for the next phase of the project.”
Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Tom Hogue
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
