Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s largest oil company, said it earned $1.6 billion selling its equity stake in a German natural-gas transport network.

The sale has closed, and won’t affect natural-gas exploration, production, sales or storage in the country, the Irving, Texas-based company said in a filing today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The profit will be recorded as part of third-quarter earnings, the company said.
Exxon Mobil spokesmen didn’t return telephone calls and e- mails to confirm that the sale was the same one announced late last year. Nederlandse Gasunie NV, the Dutch state-owned gas pipeline operator based in Groningen, announced on Nov. 23 that it was buying for an undisclosed sum a natural-gas network owned partly by Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
The 3,600 kilometer-long (2,200-mile) gas network connects the Netherlands and Denmark with German cities including Hamburg and Berlin. Oil companies such as Shell and Exxon Mobil are selling peripheral energy businesses to focus on exploration, production and refining as crude trades at records.
Exxon Mobil rose 86 cents today, or 1 percent, to $88.27 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock is down 5.8 percent this year.
(Source: Bloomberg)