2nd UPDATE: BP Agrees To Sell Assets To TNK-BP For $1.8 Billion
18 Ottobre 2010 - 5:48PM
Dow Jones News
BP PLC (BP) said Monday it agreed to sell assets in Venezuela
and Vietnam to its Russian joint venture TNK-BP Ltd. for $1.8
billion, as the U.K. oil major intensifies its divestiture program
to pay for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
BP plans to sell around $30 billion of oil and gas assets to
help cover the costs of an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in
April. It has already sold assets in the U.S., Egypt and
Colombia.
"Today's agreement is further evidence of the rapid progress BP
is making towards the divestment target we set out in July," said
BP's Chief Executive Bob Dudley in a news release.
The deal with TNK-BP brings BP's total assets sale in the wake
of Macondo to $11.4 billion. The company already announced
agreements to sell assets in Egypt, Canada and the U.S. to Apache
Corp. (APA) for $7 billion and to sell its Colombian business for
$1.9 billion to Talisman Energy Inc. (TLM) and Ecopetrol SA
(ECOPETROL.BO). BP has also undertaken smaller deals to unload
assets in Malaysia and the U.S.
BP shares were up Monday almost 2% to 434 pence.
The deal announced Monday will give TNK-BP, which is owned on a
parity basis by BP and a group of Russian businessmen, a long
awaited boost in its efforts to expand outside of Russia, the
company's CEO Mikhail Fridman said.
TNK-BP is already part of a Russian joint venture holding a 40%
stake in Venezuela's Junin-6 block in the eastern Orinoco regional
in partnership with state company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or
PdVSA. The company also has operations in Ukraine, and is seeking
to bid for projects in Iraq.
TNK-BP will pay a deposit of $1 billion by Oct. 29, with final
payment due when the deal will be concluded in the first half of
2011.
In Venezuela, TNK-BP will acquire a 16.7% stake in PetroMonagas
SA, an extra heavy oil producer; a 40% stake in Petroperija SA,
which operates the DZO field; and a 26.7% stake in Boqueron SA,
TNK-BP said in a statement.
The Venezuelan assets, which are operated as joint ventures with
state company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA, have a combined
capacity of 25,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.
In Vietnam, TNK-BP will buy from BP a 35% stake in the upstream
offshore gas production Block 06-1, containing the Lan Tay and Lan
Do gas condensate fields; a 32.7% stake in the Nam Con Son pipeline
and terminal; and a 33.3% stake in the Phu My 3 power plant.
In total, the Vietnamese assets have a production capacity of
30,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day and assets form an
integrated gas and power chain.
TNK-BP said the acquisitions will be financed through TNK-BP's
own resources and won't require additional debt.
TNK-BP, which produces nearly 2 million barrels of oil
equivalent a day, operates as a separate entity from BP. The U.K.
company is able to add half of TNK-BP's reserves and production as
its own and receives dividend company from the company.
The Russian oil producer has also stepped up efforts to buy BP
assets in Algeria, which BP is selling as part of its divestment
plan. But a TNK-BP executive said last week talks have progressed
more slowly in Algeria than in Venezuela and Vietnam because the
Algerian government only recently gave its approval to allow
negotiations to proceed.
-By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Dow Jones Newswires; +7 495 232
9197; jacob.pedersen@dowjones.com
(James Herron contributed to this story.)
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