NEW YORK, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc wants to sell a stake in a key U.S. Gulf Coast crude oilpipeline for as much as $1 billion and is working with BarclaysPlc to solicit offers, a source familiar with thematter said on Tuesday.
Shell recently reversed the 360,000-barrels-per-day pipelineknown as Ho-Ho that flows from Houston, Texas to Houma,Louisiana. The reversal and start of operations last month areexpected to relieve a glut of crude oil in the Houston area.
Shell wants to sell a stake of up to $1 billion in thepipeline worth as much as $3 billion to recoup the costs ofreversing the flow and get cash to invest in more valuabledrilling projects, Bloomberg reported earlier, citing severalsources.
Shell declined to comment.
Earlier this month, Shell issued a "significant" profitwarning for the fourth-quarter, saying earnings excludingidentified items on a current cost of supplies would be $2.9billion against market expectations of about $4 billion.
Analysts said poor refining margins, high production costs,outages and a lower Australian dollar contributed to the newforecast, which would be the lowest since 2009. (Reporting by Michael Erman; Writing by Sabina Zawadzki;Editing by Marguerita Choy)