Wintershall Dea is in advanced talks to divest a stake in the Ghasha gas concession offshore United Arab Emirates (UAE), to an arm of Thailand’s PTT, reported Bloomberg News, citing people familiar with the matter.

The German company is finalising details of a potential deal to sell its 10% stake in the offshore gas concession to PTT Exploration & Production, the sources said.

The stake in a 40-year concession of the Ghasha project was awarded to Wintershall in 2018 by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).

ADNOC owns a 55% stake in the project. Other partners include Italy’s Eni (25%), Austria’s OMV (5%) and Russia’s LUKOIL (5%).

Said to be one of the world’s largest offshore sour gas developments, the Ghasha project is due to start production by the end of this decade.

The project is expected to have a production capacity of more than 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.

It also holds potential to produce in excess of 120,000 barrels a day of oil and condensate.

According to sources, talks between Wintershall and PTT are ongoing. There is no certainty that an agreement will be signed between the two companies.

The Ghasha Concession features a total of nine fields comprising natural gas, crude oil and condensate reservoirs. These fields are due to be developed in phases.

Recently, ADNOC made the financial investment decision for the Hail and Ghasha offshore development project.

ADNOC upstream executive director Abdulmunim Al Kindy said: “The final investment decision, for Hail and Ghasha, is a major milestone for ADNOC and our strategic partners and we are delighted to progress this pioneering project with net-zero carbon dioxide emissions, significantly boosting ADNOC’s carbon capture capacity as we work toward a lower carbon future.

“Natural gas is an important transition fuel and ADNOC will continue to responsibly unlock its gas resources to enable gas self-sufficiency for the UAE, grow our export capacity and support global energy security.”