Global life and material sciences company Royal Dutch DSM has sold its wholly-owned subsidiary DSM Energy to Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) for an enterprise value of Ôé¼285 million, it was announced today.
Under the terms of the agreement, Taqa will acquire non-operated interests in the pipeline company Noordgastransport, three other pipelines and twenty oil and gas fields in the Dutch North Sea. 
The deal will significantly boost production for Taqa, which is 75 per cent government-owned, providing it with around 5000 extra barrels of oil equivalent per day, of which 85 per cent is natural gas.
It takes the value of oil and gas assets Taqa has acquired in the North Sea to over $2 billion (Ôé¼1.4 billion).
Last year Taqa announced plans to spend around $1.4 billion (Ôé¼988 million) on boosting output from its fields in the North Sea by an extra 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day over a period of three years.
In 2007, it acquired BP NetherlandsÔÇÖ gas exploration and production assets including onshore, offshore and storage facilities.┬á
Rolf-Dieter Schwalb, chief financial officer of Royal DSM said in a statement: ÔÇ£The intended sale of the energy business is another important step in DSMÔÇÖs accelerated transformation towards a Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company.
ÔÇ£As stated before, in such a company there is no place for participations in oil and gas exploration and pipelines. These participations have a much better strategic fit with TAQA. I would like to thank all DSM Energy employees for their continued support and substantial contribution.ÔÇØ
The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.
Abu Dhabi holds the majority of oil reserves in the United Arab Emirates, the world's third-largest oil exporter.
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