Shell and BP in talks over future of North Sea field - reports

Royal Dutch Shell is to be in talks with rival BP over control of the Shearwater oil and gas field in the North Sea, it has emerged.

According to reports, Shell is looking to buy BP’s 27.5% stake in the field for around $250m. Combined with its own stake, a deal would give Shell a majority holding of around 55.5%. Exxon Mobil, the US oil firm, owns the remaining 44.5%. Neither company has commented.

Reuters, which cited three unnamed industry sources, said the blue chips had held talks in recent weeks and were close to agreement - although a deal is not guaranteed.

BP is currently looking to sell a variety of assets following its acquisition last year of BHP Billiton’s US shale oil and gas portfolio for $10.5bn.

Shearwater, which was discovered in 1988, is located around 140 miles east of Aberdeen and Shell, which operates the field, is developing a gas infrastructure hub, including a new pipeline. It expects peak production to reach around 400m standard cubic feet of gas a day or around 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.