(Updates shares, adds further analyst comments, details)
** Royal Dutch Shell's shares, jump close
to 4% in London and Amsterdam after the oil giant has agreed to
sell its Permian Basin assets to ConocoPhillips for $9.5
billion in cash
** The transaction marks the energy major's exit from the
largest U.S. oilfield, shifting its focus to the clean energy
transition as investors put pressure on oil companies to better
face rising climate change and carbon emissions
concerns
** Bernstein says the deal, with assets transacted at a fair
multiple on strip pricing, helps reduce emissions along the way
towards a 20% net carbon intensity reduction by 2030 and 45% by
2025
** "... this deal should get a nod from the ESG constituent
of the market who are currently underweight Shell in their
portfolios," Bernstein says
** Berenberg says the sale boosts shareholder returns
materially, reducing carbon emissions and debt levels
** Shell will return $7 billion of the proceeds to
shareholders as dividends on top of existing commitments
** Berenberg estimates the total 2021 shareholder return
would be thus around 10%, with some of them coming in 2022
** Shell's stock among top percentage gainers on the FTSE
benchmark
(Reporting by Piotr Lipinski and Shanima A)