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* Chevron seeks to sell seven fields in central North Sea
* Becomes latest oil major to reduce presence in region
* Chevron reviewing its operations in Europe -spokeswoman(Adds details, background)
By Ron Bousso
LONDON, July 4 (Reuters) - Chevron has kicked offthe sale of a number of its oil and gas fields in the ageingNorth Sea as part of a review of the U.S. giant's Europeanoperations.
The San Ramon, California-based company is the latestveteran North Sea producer seeking to scale back its presence inthe 50-year-old North Sea basin, where production has been on asteady decline since the late 1990s.
BP, Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillipshave all sold assets in the North Sea in recent years.
"Chevron Upstream Europe is undertaking a review of itsportfolio...a decision has been taken to initiate the process ofmarketing all our UK Central North Sea assets," a companyspokeswoman said in a statement.
The assets include the Alba, Alder, Captain, Elgin/Franklin,Erskine, and Jade fields as well as the Britannia platform andits satellites.
Chevron has in recent years focused its efforts on rapidlygrowing its shale production in the Permian basin in Texas aswell as the giant Tengiz field in Kazakhstan.
While seeking to exit some of its North Sea assets, Chevronis also weighing the development of the Rosebank field west ofthe Shetland islands. The company, along with its partnersSuncor, Siccar Point and Ineos, is trying toreduce the costs of the project.
Chevron's net daily production in the North Sea in 2017averaged 50,000 barrels of oil and 155 million cubic feet ofnatural gas, according to its website.
Chevron employs around 610 people and 220 contractors in theNorth Sea, the spokeswoman said.(Additional reporting by Shadia Nasralla, editing by LouiseHeavens)
