Chevron becomes first oil major to exit Norway

OSLO, Oct 10 (Reuters) - U.S. oil firm Chevron willbecome the first oil major to formally exit the Norwegiancontinental shelf (NCS) as it transfers its last stake in anexploration license, according to a government letter.

Oil majors, including Exxon Mobil, BP andShell, have scaled down their presence in Norway byselling or merging their assets in the mature region to focus onnew growth opportunities elsewhere.

Chevron is also seeking to sell assets in the British NorthSea in order to focus on growing U.S. onshore shale productionas well as the giant Tengiz field in Kazakhstan.

According to a letter from the Norwegian oil and energyministry to Chevron dated Sept. 28. and obtained by Reuters,Chevron has agreed to transfer its 20-percent stake in anexploration license in the Arctic, called PL859, to Norway's DNO.

The decision means that "Chevron Norway shuts down itsactivities in Norway and leaves the NCS permanently", theministry wrote.

A spokeswoman for Chevron confirmed to Reuters that thecompany reached the deal with DNO in July but did not discloseits value.

"The transaction is subject to certain conditions andapprovals, and is expected to take a number of months to close,"she said.

Oil industry trade paper Upstream was the first to reportthe existence of the letter on Wednesday.

The ministry said it has agreed on the transfer of the stakeprovided Chevron guarantees to cover its share ofdecommissioning costs at Draugen, an oilfield currently inproduction.

Chevron sold its 7.56 percent stake in the Draugen field toAustria's VNG in 2014 for an undisclosed sum.

Norway's Equinor, the PL859 operator, made asmall, non-commercial gas discovery in 2017 but postponed plansto drill a second well permitted by the license until 2019.

BP no longer holds direct stakes in the Norwegian fields,but owns 30 percent of Norway's Aker BP, whichoperates a number of producing fields and exploration licenses.

Equinor said on Oct. 1 it had agreed to buy Chevron's40-percent stake in the Rosebank field off the ShetlandIslands.(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)