Shell selling 16 assets worth more than $500 million

LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell is currently offering 16 assets each worth more than $500 million (406.2 million pounds) for sale as part of its vast $30 billion three-year asset sales programme, the oil and gas company's head of upstream Andy Brown said on Wednesday. The Anglo-Dutch company launched the programme to reduce its debt following the acquisition of BG Group earlier this year. Uncertainty over the future oil price has led to a sharp slowdown in deal making in the sector in recent years. "There are 16 assets currently in the market that are above $500 million in value," Brown told the Oil and Money conference in London. (Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Mark Potter)