Morgan Stanley and Apache buy Shell assets.

Financial News, July, 2003

Royal/Dutch Shell on Thursday sold 26 of its older oil and gas assets in the shallow waters of the US Gulf of Mexico in a unique deal that saw Morgan Stanley and Apache picking up the $500m ([euro]435m) cost.Apache, a US independent oil company, paid $200m for assets and the future production of oil and natural gas, while Morgan Stanley, the US investment bank, paid $300m for the first four years of the fields' oil and gas production.

For Shell, the world's second largest oil company, the sale was a chance to rid itself of some of its more mature assets, which produce poorer returns than its newer, better producing fields.