ExxonMobil is planning a retreat from the North Sea with a $2bn (£1.6bn) sale of its oil and gas fields after almost 50 years in the UK’s oil basin. The world’s largest listed company is in talks with a number of North Sea oil firms to sell the stakes it owns in about 40 oil and gas fields alongside Royal Dutch Shell. The portfolio could fetch the US oil major about $2bn, according to market sources, after a string of similar deals in the North Sea in recent months. ExxonMobil is responsible for producing about 5% of the UK’s oil and gas through the joint venture which it formed with the Anglo-Dutch firm in the early ... (full story)