ExxonMobil to divest Norwegian assets for $4.2bn: repor

OSLO: US energy giant ExxonMobil will sell its assets in Norway to Norwegian company Var Energi, owned by Italian Eni, for 38 billion Norwegian kroner ($4.2 billion or 3.8 billion euros), the newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv reported.

According to Dagens Naeringsliv the deal should be announced at the end of September.

A source close to the negotiations, who requested not to be named, confirmed the timetable to AFP on Friday, but stressed that while the companies were in negotiations an agreement was still not certain.

"We have concluded a memorandum of understanding on possible negotiations," the source said.

The transaction would see ExxonMobil completely leave the Norwegian market after having had operations there for over a century.

It would also make Var Energi the country's second largest oil producer, after Equinor, with a production of 300,000 to 350,000 barrels a day.

"We are not commenting on ongoing discussions," Anne Fougner, ExxonMobil's spokeswoman in Norway, told AFP.

Var Energi could not immediately be reached for comment.

In June, Norwegian media reported that ExxonMobil intended to sell off its remaining Norwegian assets, after it already sold all the oil fields it operated in the country in 2017.

ExxonMobil first established its Norwegian subsidiary in 1893 and is currently a part owner of about 20 oil and gas fields, accounting for a production of about 170,000 barrels a day.

Italian oil company Eni controls 69.6 percent of Var Energi and the remaining 30.4 percent of shares are held by the investment company HitecVision.