2010-11-16-2010-11-09

To buy 29.18% stake in Woodside Petroleum, which has operations primarily in Australia.

Investment bank UBS AG, Zurich, Switzerland, (NYSE: UBS) plans to acquire the 29.18% stake in Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Perth, Australia, (Australia: WPX) held by Shell Energy Holdings Australia Ltd., a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, The Hague, Netherlands (NYSE: RDS) for US$3.35 billion.

UBS will pay A$42.23 (US$42.72) per share to acquire 78.34 Woodside shares held by Shell.

Pro forma, Shell Energy Holdings will own a 24.27% interest in Woodside and has committed to retain its remaining shares in Woodside for a minimum of one year, with limited exceptions.

Woodside has operations primarily in Australia with a project portfolio includeing Enfield, Laminaria-Corallina, Mutineer-Exeter oil project, Otway gas project, Stybarrow oil project, Vincent oil project, and North West Shelf Venture facilities. It also develops Greater Sunrise fields and the Browse gas fields.

Proved and probable reserves as of Dec. 31, 2008, were 1.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Shell chief executive Peter Voser says, "Our stake in Woodside has been an important part of Shell's portfolio in Australia for many years...However, with Shell's recent portfolio progress in Australia, our world-wide push to simplify the company and to improve our capital efficiency, we will increasingly focus our investment in Australia through direct interests in assets and joint ventures, rather than indirect stakes."

Shell Australia's country chair, Ann Pickard, says "Shell's directly-owned Australia LNG capacity is around 2.7 mtpa today, and is forecast to more than double to some 6.5 mtpa by 2015, as Gorgon comes on line. Looking beyond 2015, we see significant further growth potential from pre-FID options. Our directly-owned assets in Australia could add a further 10 mpta for Shell beyond 2015 towards a total of 16 mtpa."