The world’s leading energy companies are hoping to sell dozens of oil and gas fields and refineries worth over $110 billion to reduce ballooning debt and their carbon footprint. But with the outlook for oil and gas prices shrouded in uncertainty because of the coronavirus epidemic and the looming energy transition, finding buyers and agreeing on asset prices might prove tricky.

“This is not a very good time to sell assets,” Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne said on Wednesday while presenting the French giant’s strategy to switch to renewables energy. Eight of the world’s top oil companies – Exxon Mobil , Chevron , Royal Dutch Shell , BP , Total , Equinor , Eni and ConocoPhillips – are expected to sell in the coming years assets with resources of around 68 billion barrels of oil and natural gas equivalent, around two years of today’s global demand, according to Norwegian consultancy Rystad Energy.

Those assets today carry an estimated value of $111 billion, Rystad said in a note. Oil prices crashed to their lowest since 1999 in April after a collapse in demand caused by coronavirus-related travel restrictions around the world. They have since recovered to around $40 a barrel, but are not expected to rise dramtically in the coming years.

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Source: SweetCrudeReports