By David French, Shariq Khan and Andres Gonzalez
LONDON/NEW YORK, April 2 (Reuters) - European energy majors TotalEnergies and Shell are among companies eyeing a majority stake in one of the U.S. Gulf's most promising sites, three sources with knowledge of the process said, as interest in North American energy prospects rises due to the Middle East conflict.
London-listed BP is also interested, two of the people and a fourth one said, as is Spain's Repsol, a fifth person said. Chevron is also expected
to consider a bid, two of the people said.
Two of the owners of the Shenandoah offshore field kicked off a sale process for their stakes in recent days, offering possible buyers 51% of the project, three of the people said. The selling duo are Blackstone-backed Beacon Offshore Energy, the operator of the field, and HEQ Deepwater, which is owned by Quantum Capital Group and Houston Energy. The rest of the holding is with Israel's Navitas Petroleum.
Initial bids are expected to be filed in coming weeks, the sources said. Other parties that may be drawn into the process include large Middle East and Asian energy producers, said a sixth person with knowledge of the process.
Not all the parties may end up bidding, and the deal valuation will depend on factors including how much of Shenandoah is ultimately sold and what happens with oil prices, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the talks were private.
Total, Repsol, BP, Beacon, Quantum, Blackstone and Shell declined to comment. An HEQ representative declined to comment. "Chevron regularly evaluates its business opportunities and portfolio. We do not disclose our business development strategies," a Chevron spokesperson said.
ULTRA DEEPWATER
Shenandoah is an ultra deepwater field, with oil and gas situated in reservoirs around 30,000 feet deep. Such exploration is regarded as technically challenging, with pressure around 20,000 pounds per square inch, but is seen as having some of the greatest potential in the U.S. Gulf region, industry experts say. Shenandoah began production in July, and Beacon reported in October that four phase-one wells were achieving targeted production of 100,000 barrels of oil per day.
The potential value of U.S. oil and gas assets has benefitted from the war due to both the rising price of oil and the fact that they are far from the conflict zone and can be delivered worldwide, one of the sources said.
(Reporting by Shariq Khan and David French in New York and Andres Gonzalez in London. Adittional reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, America Hernandez, Sheila Dang and Stephanie Kelly, Editing by Anousha Sakoui and Anna Driver)
