TOTAL is accelerating its retreat from the North Sea with a £585 million deal to sell facilities that process the output from more than 20 fields off Scotland and around a fifth of the UK’s gas.

The French oil and gas giant has agreed to sell its interests in two pipelines and the St Fergus gas terminal to the North Sea Midstream Partners business co-founded by Mike Wagstaff, who used to run Aberdeen-based Venture Production.

The deal reflects Total’s desire to raise cash and cut costs in response to the plunge in the crude price since June last year.

Last month the company agreed to sell a 20 per cent stake in the giant Laggan Tormore gas development off Shetland to Scottish Hydroelectric owner SSE for £565m.

While Total insisted it will remain a major player in the North Sea offshore industry for many years, the disposals will heighten alarm about the prospect of international oil and gas giants slashing investment off Scotland amid fears the oil price could remain low for years.

The North Sea is seen as a high cost area in which there is lots of ageing infrastructure.

The assets Total is selling to North Sea Midstream Partners include the 220 mile Frigg UK Pipeline, originally constructed in 1977 to connect the Frigg Field to the St. Fergus terminal in Aberdeenshire.

While the Frigg field ceased production in 2004, the pipeline still takes gas from 20 fields off northern Scotland for processing at St Fergus.

Total opened the St Fergus terminal in 1977 to handle the output from Frigg. The company says the terminal processes gas from more than 20 other fields in the UK and Norway. It supplies up to 18 per cent of the UK’s gas.

The deal is in line with Total’s aim of limiting investment in mature UK North Sea assets.

However, the deal also includes Total’s 67 per cent interest in the new 140 mile pipeline it has installed to take gas from Laggan Tormore from Shetland to the Frigg UK link.

On its website Total highlights the importance of the pipeline, which it says is expected to allow gas from the emerging West of Shetland frontier to be exported to the UK mainland market.

“The sale of these midstream transportation assets is another example of Total’s strategy of active portfolio management and the strong potential to unlock value from a range of infrastructure assets,” said Patrick de La Chevardière, chief financial officer at Total.

“Transferring ownership to an entity specializing in midstream UK assets creates value for us and ensures a long and bright future for the facilities.”

The deal comes at a time when a range of North Sea assets are up for sale.

It also provides a sign the shake-out in the North Sea may have created opportunities for financial buyers to buy assets at what they see as attractive prices.

Founded in 2012 with backing from a US private equity firm, North Sea Midstream Partners bought the Teesside Gas Processing Plant in that year from a group of investors led by Deutsche Bank.

It is chaired by Mr Wagstaff, who was chief executive of Venture Production when the firm was acquired by Centrica in a hostile £1.3 billion takeover in 2009.

Formerly an investment banker, Mr Wagstaff highlighted the appeal of buying North Sea infrastructure assets during his time in charge of Venture. Pipelines can generate steady returns over long periods and there is scope to consolidate the fragmented ownership structures that are common in the sector.

North Sea Midstream Partners said infrastructure is crucial to the longevity of the North Sea. It claimed independent ownership of such infrastructure could help maximise the recovery of the UK’s oil and gas reserves.

In April private equity-backed Antin Infrastructure Partners bought BP’s stake in the Central Area Transmission System pipeline network in the North Sea for £324m.

With Laggan Tormore expected to come onstream in coming months, Total said it expects to become the largest producing oil and gas company in the UK by the end of 2015.

Subject to approvals, Total will sell 100 per cent interests in the Frigg UK pipeline and the St Fergus terminal to North Sea Midstream Partners.