The deal with Focus Oil could value Shell's stake in the Caesar Tonga Field in the Gulf of Mexico at about $1.3 billion, the report said.
Gazprom, which plans to complete the pipeline in 2019, said in a statement that 1,161 km of pipe had been laid since it began construction last year.
The Romanian company, controlled by private equity firm Carlyle Group LP, discovered two wells holding an estimated 10 billion cubic meters of gas in 2008 some 120 km offshore, where it has rights over the XIII Pelican and XV Midia Shallow blocks.
Turkey has estimated that the Black Sea holds recoverable reserves of 10 Bbbl of crude oil and 2 Tcm (70.6 Tcf) of natural gas and operators are making progress, slow some might say, toward exploiting this potential that a few years ago was touted by some analysts as the “new North Sea.”
Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft said it had resumed oil loadings from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk on on the morning of Dec. 30, after a storm.
Park Place previously entered an agreement to purchase the Tiway Cos., which are three E&P companies operating in Turkey. They own interests in one offshore producing field and two onshore producing fields.
Shell won a tender for a five-year permit for deepwater exploration at the 1-14 Silistar block that covers 7,000 sq km (2,703 sq miles) in September.
The Balkan country, eager to reduce its near total dependence on Russian gas, had in April opened tenders for two offshore blocks, Silistar and Teres.
The companies’ assets include approximately 600,000 net onshore acres and 360,000 net offshore acres in the Thrace Basin of Turkey.
The companies’ assets include approximately 600,000 net onshore acres and 360,000 net offshore acres in the Thrace Basin of Turkey.