TAQA In $240m Deal To Sell Dutch Pipeline Stake

Abu Dhabi National Energy Co (TAQA) is selling its 40 per cent stake in a Dutch natural gas pipeline to a Danish pension fund for $240 million as the investment no longer meets its growth strategy in the country, it said on Sunday.

The sale of the stake in Noordgastransport B.V. (NGT) to pension fund PensionDanmark A/S is expected to close in 2013, TAQA, which is 75 per cent owned by the Abu Dhabi government, said in a statement to the stock exchange. It declined to say how much it paid for the stake, bought from Royal DSM in 2009.

David Cook, head of oil & gas operations said in a separate statement TAQA’s strategy was to maximise its portfolio’s value and it would focus on an 800 million euro ($1 billion) storage project, Bergermeer, in which it has a 60 per cent stake.

It also owns and operates a gas storage facility in Alkmaar in the Netherlands.

NGT, operated by GDF Suez, consists of about 470 km (295 miles) of offshore pipeline with daily gas capacity of about 42 million cubic metres, TAQA said.

In 2012, TAQA bought a number of BP’s North Sea assets for more than $1.3 billion. It got clearance from the Kurdistan Regional Government to develop the Atrush Block in the autonomous region of Iraq last month.