Shell (NYSE: SHEL) announced this week that its Shell Offshore subsidiary had completed the previously announced sale of its interests in the Coulomb and Na Kika assets, plus associated fields, in the US Gulf of Mexico. The assets were acquired by a subsidiary of Talos Energy (NYSE: TALO) and an affiliate of private equity firm Ridgewood Energy.

The assets changing hands included a 50% non-operated interest in Na Kika, associated fields and the 100% Shell-owned Coulomb tieback. Talos said in its own September 22 announcement that there were four fields associated with the Na Kika platform. In its previous announcement upon agreeing to the acquisition in late June, Talos had specified that these fields were Kepler, Ariel, Fourier and Herschel. BP (NYSE: BP) operates Na Kika and owns the remaining 50% interest in the project. According to Talos’ announcement, the assets have been split equally between Talos and Ridgewood.

When the sale was first announced, Shell said it would receive $1.7bn in total for the assets, subject to certain contingent payments. This week, the supermajor specified that it had received around $840mn in cash proceeds, which it said reflected adjustments between the effective date of the transaction of July 1, 2025, and the closing of the deal. Shell said it would receive uncapped upside-linked payments until the end of 2027 and overriding royalty interests (ORRI) on production from new Na Kika tiebacks, subject to certain conditions.

Talos confirmed in its own announcement that it had paid a final net cash purchase price of $420mn at the deal’s close. Ridgewood has not publicly commented on the completion of the deal.

Following the closing of the transaction, Shell Trading US will retain rights to offtake from Na Kika and Coulomb through negotiated agreements with the buyers, according to the announcement. Meanwhile, the deal includes the assumption of certain decommissioning obligations by Talos and Ridgewood, as well as the provision of security with respect to these obligations.

Shell noted that for 2025, its share of production from the assets being sold amounted to 37,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd). Shell’s proven reserves stood at 4.3mn barrels of oil equivalent (boe) at the end of 2025 for Na Kika and 7.2mn boe at the end of 2025 for Coulomb. The company cited its own modelling as showing that Na Kika and Coulomb would not be meaningful contributors to its production by 2030.

However, the supermajor remains the largest producer of oil and gas in the Gulf.

For Talos, meanwhile, the acquisition expands its footprint around existing deepwater infrastructure in the Gulf.

"The closing of this transaction marks another important step in executing our strategy to build a long-lived, scaled portfolio and become the leading pure-play offshore E&P,” stated Talos’ president and CEO, Paul Goodfellow. “These high-quality, oil-weighted assets immediately enhance our scale, increase free cash flow generation, improve our margins and provide infrastructure-led growth opportunities that leverage our core strengths in the Gulf of America.”