The company was established in 1962 when Maersk Group was awarded a concession for oil and gas exploration and production in the Danish sector of the North Sea. In 1986, Maersk Oil took over the operation of the Dansk Undergrunds Consortium's fields in the Danish section of the North Sea.[6]
On 31 August 2015 the UK Oil And Gas Authority approved a consortium headed by Maersk Oil going ahead with production at the Culzean oil and gas field about 150 miles southeast of Aberdeen, Scotland in the North Sea.[7] The high pressure, high temperature field holds the equivalent of about 300 million barrels of oil and, when it reaches peak production in 2020 or 2021, is expected to produce enough gas to meet 5% of the UK's needs. Maersk Oil said that it and its other consortium partners, JX Nippon and BP (Britoil) would invest about £3 billion (about $4.5 billion) in the field's development.[8]
On 21 August 2017 A.P. Møller – Mærsk A/S announced the signing of an agreement to sell Mærsk Olie og Gas A/S to TotalEnergies for US$7.45 billion in a combined share and debt transaction.[9] The transaction was subject to regulatory and competition approval and was closed on 8 March 2018,[10] when Maersk Oil became a part of Total.
On 20 September 2017 A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S agreed to sell its tankers unit to the A.P. Moller Holding A/S subsidiary APMH Invest A/S, which was the controlling shareholder of A.P. Moller-Maersk. Maersk had owned the tanker business since 1928, which at the time of the sale, had a fleet of 161 vessels to transport refined oil products.[11]
