Thumbs Up for BP's Latest Asset Sale

We view BP's sale of assets to cover oil-spill costs favourably and will keep an eye out for similar initiatives in the months to come

Catharina Milostan 18 October, 2010 | 4:15PM
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BP (BP.) is taking another step forward in its plans to sell $30 billion in assets by the end of 2011 with an agreement to sell assets in Venezuela and Vietnam to its 50%-owned Russian joint venture, TNK-BP, for $1.8 billion. We view this sale favourably, as it gets BP closer to its asset sale goal of noncore properties with minimal production impact, leaving other interests in Venezuela and Vietnam intact.

In Venezuela, TNK will acquire interests in joint ventures with the state company, Petroleos de Venezuela, with production of only 25,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day or just 0.6% of BP's total 2009 production. TNK-BP will own a 16.67% interest in heavy oil producer PetroMonagas, a 40% interest in Petroperija, which operates the DZO field, and 26.67% in Boqueron. In Vietnam, assets sold have net entitlement production of 15,000 boe/d, or just 0.4% of BP's total production in 2009. This includes a 35% stake in offshore gas production Block 06-1, including Lan Tay and Lan Do gas condensate fields, a 32.67% stake in the Nam Con Son pipeline and terminal, and a 33.3% stick in the Phu My 3 power plant.

TNK-BP will pay a deposit of $1 billion to BP on Oct. 29 with a final payment due in the first half of 2011. This planned sale adds to earlier plans to sell $7 billion of assets in Egypt, Canada, and the United States to Apache and $1.9 billion of Colombian assets to Talisman Energy and Ecopetrol. We're encouraged by BP's progress with asset sales to fund oil-spill-related costs and will look for news of more asset sales in the coming months.

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Securities Mentioned in Article

Security NamePriceChange (%)Morningstar
Rating
BP PLC392.70 GBX1.06Rating

About Author

Catharina Milostan  Catharina Milostan is a stock analyst with Morningstar.

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