Maersk Oil is beating a retreat from Qatar. The Danish firm has lost out in a bid to extend its rights in the Al Shaheen oil field, its 25-year contract there expiring in one year’s time. The oil field, developed with Qatar Petroleum, is the largest in the Middle Eastern country. France’s Total beat out six other bidders to win the rights for the next 25 years, taking a 30% stake in the field.

“Maersk Oil presented a highly competitive technical and commercial proposition based on more than 20 years of technical knowledge and experience working with the Al Shaheen field,” said Maersk Oil CEO, Jakob Thomasen

http://splash247.com/total-strips-maersk-oil-of-its-rights-to-qatars-largest-oil-field/

A misleading headline and an even more misleading post.

They lost a tender.

So Total didn't really "strip" them of anything, Qatar did.

And they aren't retreating, they are being kicked out.

My guess is that they couldn't do this:

Total’s CEO Patrick Pouyanne said in Doha today: “We have a plan to invest for five years 2017-2022, more than $2 billion in that field in order to integrate technology. Our first objective is to maintain 300,000 barrels a day. Currently that’s not a given as there’s a natural decline (in production) as its a complex field.”