Royal Dutch Shell PLC said Monday it is selling its stake in an Australian natural-gas project, the oil company's first disposal since it issued a rare profit warning last week.

Shell said it has agreed to sell its 8% equity interest in the Wheatstone-Iago gas field, which is operated by U.S.-based Chevron Corp., and 6.4% interest in the Wheatstone liquefied-natural-gas project in Western Australia for $1.14 billion in cash to state-owned Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co.

"Shell will remain a major player in Australia's energy industry," Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said. "However, we are refocusing our investment to where we can add the most value with Shell's capital and technology."

Shell said Friday it expects fourth-quarter earnings, which it will announce next week, to be $2.2 billion, down about 70% from $7.3 billion a year earlier. It projected full-year earnings of $16.8 billion, down from $27.2 billion in 2012. The company blamed factors across its businesses, including poor refining margins and increased spending.

The announcement was the Anglo-Dutch energy giant's first profit warning in a decade, and came less than a month into Mr. van Beurden's tenure as CEO.

Like other large oil companies, Shell has been hit recently by rising costs and an inability to capitalize on the U.S. shale-gas boom. Shell projects its capital spending to be more than $44 billion for 2013, up nearly 50% from a year earlier as the company pursues big oil and gas developments.

 Australia has been a particularly expensive place for oil companies in recent years, partly because of high labor costs. In addition to Wheatstone, Shell holds a stake in a natural-gas project called Gorgon, operated by Chevron, that has seen projected costs rise to $54 billion as of last month from $37 billion in 2009, Chevron said. Shell also has stakes in other Australian gas fields and is building a first-of-its-kind barge-mounted gas-liquification plant to tap an offshore Australian field.
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