OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian energy firm Statoil has sold a string of assets to BASF subsidiary Wintershall for $1.3 billion (800 million pounds) on Friday, freeing cash to fund developments that have drained its cash flow in recent years.
Statoil will sell stakes in four fields in Norway - exiting two completely - and will divest part of its 25 billion crown (2.3 billion pounds) Polarled pipeline, which will transport gas from new Arctic fields in the Norwegian Sea, it said in a statement.
Statoil said the accounting gain was expected to be between $700 million and $900 million, and would release around $1.8 billion of capital expenditure until the end of 2020.
"It's a very good deal at a very good price and improves the firm's liquidity," John Olaisen, an analyst at brokerage ABG Sundal Collier, said.
Statoil has sold around $20 billion worth of assets since 2010, including its retail chain and producing fields, to fund the development of new discoveries, including the giant Johan Sverdrup field, which contains up to 2.9 billion barrels of oil equivalents and could cost $18 billion to develop.
Statoil earlier this year cut back its capital spending plans and abandoned its 2020 production target, arguing that it needed to save cash and return more to investors. It now plans to keep capital spending steady at $20 billion a year through 2016.
As part of the deal announced on Friday Statoil will sell 24 percent of the Aasta Hansteen gas field and 13.2 percent of Polarled, which will connect the field to the shore.
It is also selling 24 percent of the Asterix field and exiting Vega, selling its 24.5 percent stake, and its 5 percent stake in Gjoea.
Production from Gjoea and Vega averaged 22,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the first half of the year.
Statoil shares traded 0.9 percent higher in early trade on Friday, just ahead of a 0.2 percent rise in the European oil and gas index.
(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Additional reporting by Ole Petter Skonnord; editing by Susan Thomas)