Danish E&P Maersk Oil plans to acquire interests in three Lower Tertiary development projects in the Gulf of Mexico from Devon Energy Corp., Oklahoma City, (NYSE: DVN) for $1.3 billion in cash, the first step in a series of planned divestitures of its offshore and international interests in Devon’s repositioning to focus exclusively onshore U.S.

The assets include Devon’s 50% working interest in the Cascade project and its 25% working interests in the Jack and St. Malo projects. All three projects are in deepwater Walker Ridge offshore Louisiana. No current production or proved reserves are associated with these assets.

The deal did not involve Devon’s 30% working interest in Kaskida.

Cascade Field, operated by Petrobras, is expected to begin production in 2010. Chevron-operated Jack and St. Malo fields are expected to begin production in 2014. Maersk estimates net recoverable resources from the three fields combined are more than 200 million BOE.

Devon announced plans to divest its Gulf of Mexico and international assets in November. The sale of these properties reduces Devon’s previously announced 2010 capital budget for the Gulf of Mexico by approximately $400 million.

Data rooms for the remaining offshore and international assets will be open first-quarter 2010. The company has estimated after-tax proceeds from the planned divestitures, including this transaction for approximately $1.1 billion, at $4.5 billion to $7.5 billion when completed. Deutsche Bank is advisor to Devon.

Maersk Oil, a subsidiary of A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, holds interests in the western and central Gulf of Mexico, as well as offshore Brazil and Angola. It operates more than 700,000 BOE per day globally with production in Denmark, Qatar, the U.K., Algeria and Kazakhstan.

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