US energy giant ExxonMobil will sell its assets in Norway to Norwegian company Var Energi, owned by Italian Eni, for 38 billion Norwegian kroner ($4.2 billion or 3.8 billion euros), the newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv reported. According to Dagens Naeringsliv the deal should be announced at the end of September. A source close to the negotiations, who requested not to be named, confirmed the timetable to AFP on Friday, but stressed that while the companies were in negotiations an agreement was still not certain.

"We have concluded a memorandum of understanding on possible negotiations," the source said. The transaction would see ExxonMobil completely leave the Norwegian market after having had operations there for over a century. It would also make Var Energi the country's second largest oil producer, after Equinor, with a production of 300,000 to 350,000 barrels a day.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019