Marathon Oil Corporation has completed the sale of its wholly owned subsidiary, Marathon Oil Ireland Limited (MOIL) to PSE Ireland Limited, a subsidiary of Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas). The transaction has a total value of $180 million with an effective date of Dec. 31, 2007. This sale does not include Marathon's 18.5 percent interest in the Corrib natural gas development.

Including this transaction, Marathon has completed approximately $1.3 billion of the anticipated $2 to $4 billion in asset sales announced in March 2008. The Company expects further announcements related to this asset review and disposal program by mid-year 2009.

Under the terms of the sale, PSE Ireland Limited acquired Marathon's 100 percent operated interest in the Kinsale Head Area comprising Kinsale Head, South West Kinsale and the Ballycotton gas fields, as well as an 86.5 percent interest in the gas producing Seven Heads field which is tied back to Kinsale, and a 100 percent interest in the Company's gas storage business with current capacity of 7 billion cubic feet. As part of the transaction PSE Ireland Limited retains the 61 MOIL employees in Ireland.

Net production from these operations averaged approximately 30 million cubic feet of natural gas per day for the first quarter of 2009. Marathon's total net risked resource associated with these assets as of year-end 2007 was 62 billion cubic feet (bcf) of which 46.2 bcf (7.7 million barrels of oil equivalent) were net proved reserves.

Tags: Marathon Oil Corporation