Shell sells Thailand gas field stake to Kuwait's Kufpec for $900 million

SINGAPORE/DUBAI (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell said on Tuesday it would sell its stake in Thailand's Bongkot gas field to Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company for $900 million (719.5 million pounds). The move is the latest stage of the Anglo-Dutch company's push to reduce debt after buying smaller rival BG Group for $70 billion, bringing its total divestments since April 2015 to 8.7 billion. The transaction will include Shell's 22.2-percent equity stake in the Bongkot field and adjoining acreage off the coast of Thailand consisting of Blocks 15, 16 and 17 and Block G12/48, Shell said in a statement. "This transaction shows the clear momentum behind Shell's global, value-driven $30 billion divestment programme," the company said. Kufpec said in a separate statement that the acquisition would provide it with 68 million barrels of oil equivalent in proved and probable reserves and approximately 39,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of production. Kufpec expects the acquisition to be completed in February while Shell gave a timeline of the first quarter of 2017. PTT Exploration and Production PCL operates the offshore Bongkot field with a 44.445-percent equity while Total has a 33.333 percent stake. Shell is also nearing the sale of a large part of its North Sea oil and gas assets to private equity-backed Chrysaor for $3 billion. (Reporting by Florence Tan in SINGAPORE and Rania El-Gamal in DUBAI; Editing by Richard Pullin and Joseph Radford)