Petrofac sells Chergui gas field stake to Perenco

Petrofac has agreed to sell its stake in Tunisia's Chergui gas field to Perenco as the UK energy company disposes of peripheral assets to conserve capital.

Perenco, the Anglo-French oil and gas group, will buy Petrofac’s 45% stake in Chergui. All Chergui employees will transfer to Perenco when the deal completes by the end of 2018.

Petrofac did not disclose the price but said it would book a small gain from the sale. Tunisia’s national oil company owns the rest of Chergui.

Chergui has caused trouble for Petrofac, which came close to pulling out of Tunisia in 2017 after protestors seeking permanent jobs shut the plant down for several months.

Petrofac is slimming down its business and reducing debt. In April it sold the rights to JSD6000 deepwater installation vessel to Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries for a net $167m.

Alastair Cochran, Petrofac’s chief financial officer, said: "This [Chergui] transaction demonstrates we are delivering on our clear strategy of focusing on our core and reducing capital intensity."

In 2017 the UK's Serious Fraud Office started an investigation into Petrofac as part of an inquiry into Monaco-based Unaoil over suspected bribery, corruption and money laundering.