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Chevron's Rosebank Share Attracts Potential Buyer's Interest

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Chevron Corporation’s (CVX - Free Report) recently received an approach from a potential buyer for its stake in the Rosebank field offshore U.K. It has received an expression of interest for its 40% operating interest in the Rosebank project, per reports. The identity of the buyer is yet to be revealed.

Chevron has Suncor Energy Inc. (SU - Free Report) and Siccar Point Energy as partners in the field with 40% and 20% non-operating interests, respectively. Chevron is currently working on Front End Engineering and Design (“FEED”) works of the project. The field is located around 80 miles or 129 kilometers northwest of the Shetland Islands at 3,600-feet water depth. It is expected to have recoverable volume of more than 300 million barrels.  Per senior research manager at Wood Mackenzie, Ross Cassidy’s estimates, the capital cost of development of the field will be more than $6 billion.

Notably, in July, Chevron announced that it was set to put up many of its North Sea oil and gas assets for sale, in a bid to streamline portfolio. The assets it intended to offload included Britannia and its satellites, along with Alba, Alder, Captain, Elgin/Franklin and Erskine fields, but Rosebank. The move is part of Chevron’s strategic review of global portfolio to determine the competitiveness of all its projects. The decision seemed to be a prudent one as extracting oil from North Sea is not so economical because production costs are much higher than returns.

Now, if the divestment of Rosebank field properties goes through, the company will have a 19.4% interest in the Clair field left for their U.K. portfolio, which is operated by Bp plc (BP - Free Report) . Notably, output from North Sea accounts for just around 3% of Chevron’s total production. Instead, the company wants to improve its focus on the lucrative shale exploration in Permian, along with some of its major projects in the Gulf of Mexico and Kazakhstan.

Price Performance

San Ramon, CA-based Chevron has gained 3.9% in a year compared with 14% collective growth of the industry it belongs to.

Zacks Rank & Stock to Consider

Currently, Chevron has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Investors interested in the Oil and Gas sector can opt for a better-ranked stock like Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. or Petrobras (PBR - Free Report) , sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil-based Petrobras is an integrated energy company. The company’s top-line for 2018 is likely to improve 8.7% year over year. In the last four reported quarters, it delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 10.4%.

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