Shell to sell Australian energy interests

Energy giant Royal Dutch Shell has announced the sale of stakes in Australian natural gas assets for more than $US1 billion to a Kuwaiti state company.

Shell said it had agreed to sell its 8.0-per cent equity interest in the Wheatstone-Iago gas field and 6.4-per cent interest in the Wheatstone liquefied natural gas project for $US1.135 billion ($A1.30 billion) to the Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company.

Despite the sales, "Shell will remain a major player in Australia's energy industry", Shell's new chief executive officer Ben van Beurden said in a statement.

"However, we are refocusing our investment to where we can add the most value with Shell's capital and technology. We are making hard choices in our world-wide portfolio to improve Shell's capital efficiency," he added.

The announcement comes just a few days after the Anglo-Dutch group issued a profits warning.

The London-listed company had warned on Friday that its fourth-quarter earnings were set to be "significantly lower than recent levels of profitability".

Profit on a current cost of supplies (CCS) basis - which strips out changes to the value of oil and gas inventories - was set to plunge 70 per cent to about $US2.2 billion in the three months to December compared with the fourth quarter of 2012, Shell had said.

The news marked a downbeat start for Beurden - the Dutch CEO who replaced Peter Voser on January 1.