RWE AG, Germany's largest power producer, today said that it will sell its oil and gas exploration and production business in order to strengthen its bottom line and ease pressure on future capital expenditure.

The decision to sell its subsidiary RWE Dea AG came today after RWE reported a 27.7-per cent decline in net profit to €1.31 billion and earnings per share plunged 36.4 per cent to €2.13.

The Essen-based company said that the planned disposal would be in line with its strategic repositioning, and that it would intimate further developments on the sale in due course.

RWE Dea currently has stakes in more than 180 licences or concessions in oil and gas blocks in 14 countries and is the operator in almost half of them.

The company has production facilities and concessions in Germany, the UK, Norway, Denmark and Egypt. Its production facilities in Algeria and Libya are currently under construction.

It also has exploration permits in Algeria, Ireland, Libya, Mauritania, Poland, Trinidad & Tobago and Turkmenistan and also operates large underground gas-storage facilities in Germany.

As of 31 December 2011, RWE Dea had proven resources of approximately 237 million cubic meters of oil equivalents and generated around 84,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.

It had net income of €197 million in fiscal 2011 on revenues of €1.94 billion.

Citing a banker, The Wall Street Journal said RWE Dea could fetch around €7 billion, while an unnamed industry analyst said that the value of the division could be as high as €8 billion or €9 billion.