Marathon Oil sells Irish subsidiary

The US-headquartered energy company Marathon Oil today announced the sale of its Irish subsidiary, Marathon Oil Ireland Limited (MOIL) to PSE Ireland Limited, a subsidiary of Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas).

The transaction has a total value of $180m (€138m) as of December 31, 2007. The sale does not include Marathon's 18.5% interest in the Corrib natural gas development, the company said in a statement.

Including this transaction, Marathon has completed approximately $1.3bn (€990m) of the anticipated $2 to $4bn (€1.5 to €3bn) in asset sales announced in March 2008. The company expects further announcements related to this asset review and disposal program by mid-year 2009.

As part of the transaction PSE Ireland Limited retains the 61 MOIL employees in Ireland, the company said.