Shell weighs sale of $2 billion-plus stake in Queensland LNG facilities

“Royal Dutch Shell plc is considering a sale of a 26.25% interest in the Queensland Curtis LNG (QCLNG) Common Facilities - a multibillion dollar investment opportunity,” the sale flyer said.

The sale process is being run by Rothschild & Co and is due to be completed in 2020, the document showed.

Shell declined to comment on what it called market speculation. Rothschild also declined to comment.

The facilities in which it might sell a stake could fetch between $2 billion and $3 billion, two people familiar with the sale process said.

The QCLNG plant is majority owned by Shell, with minority stakes owned by China National Offshore Oil Corp and Tokyo Gas Co.

The plant has so-called common facilities which Shell wholly owns, including two LNG storage tanks, water, fuel and power generation systems, a tanker-loading jetty and terminals.

The Shell facilities are being offered to infrastructure investors as they offer a U.S-dollar denominated, inflation-linked usage fee from CNOOC and Tokyo Gas over about 15 years, regardless of the plant’s throughput.

Shell acquired its stake in QCLNG and the facilities with its $53 billion takeover of BG Group in 2016.

The potential sale follows Shell’s sanctioning last month of a gas project in Queensland and its renewable energy push in Australia after the takeover of ERM Power last year.

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