Shell completes $840m sale of Na Kika and Coulomb interests to Talos and Ridgewood
Talos paid a net $420m for a quarter of Na Kika and operatorship of the Coulomb tieback in the US Gulf
Shell Offshore has completed the sale of its interests in the Na Kika platform and the Coulomb field in the US Gulf to Talos Energy and an affiliate of Ridgewood Energy, receiving about $840 million in cash at closing on 22 September.
The package comprises Shell's 50% non-operated working interest in the bp-operated Na Kika platform and its associated fields, and its 100% interest in the Coulomb tieback. Talos took a 25% working interest in Na Kika and a 50% working interest in Coulomb together with operatorship of the field. Ridgewood acquired the remaining interests Shell sold. bp continues to operate Na Kika and keeps its own 50% working interest.
Talos paid a final net cash price of $420 million for its share, including a previously escrowed deposit of $42.5 million and subject to customary post-closing adjustments, in its closing announcement filed on 22 September. The assets will contribute to its third-quarter 2026 results from the closing date and will be fully consolidated from the fourth quarter.
"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," said Talos president and chief executive Paul Goodfellow.
Shell's share of production from Na Kika and Coulomb averaged about 37,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2025. At the end of that year it reported proved reserves of 4.3 million barrels of oil equivalent at Na Kika and 7.2 million at Coulomb. The Na Kika semisubmersible began production in 2003, and the Coulomb tieback followed in 2005.
Shell does not leave the assets entirely. It will receive uncapped payments linked to price upside through 2027 and overriding royalty interests on production from new Na Kika tiebacks, subject to conditions, and Shell Trading US Co. keeps the offtake rights for production from both fields. The buyers have assumed certain decommissioning obligations.
For the service market around the platform, the change is in who makes the decisions on Coulomb: operatorship of the tieback passes from Shell to Talos, while Na Kika itself stays with bp.
This story is part of the Maritime Briefing of 25 September 2026.
