THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - Royal Dutch Shell PLC says it has agreed to sell its stakes in an Australian liquefied natural gas project to the Kuwaiti Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company for $1.135 billion (840 million euros). Shell announced Monday it is selling its eight percent stake in the Wheatstone-Iago joint venture and its 6.4 percent interest in the Wheatstone liquefied natural gas project. Shell CEO Ben van Beurden says in a statement the company is "making hard choices in our world-wide portfolio to improve Shell's capital efficiency." The state-run Kuwaiti company already is a partner in the Wheatstone joint venture. Last Friday, Shell warned that its fourth-quarter profit will be worse than most analysts expected due to lower production higher costs and a worse performance by its refining division.