British Petroleum (BP) wants to get up to $7.9 billion before taxes, from the sale of four oilfields in the Gulf of Mexico, following the accidental oil spill from a platform of the group in the region in 2010, according to two sources close to the situation. The oil producer, second largest in Europe after Royal Dutch Shell, has prepared preliminary data for the potential buyers. Because of fees to be paid by the buyer, BP will gain from asset sale $5-6 billion, said one of the sources, cited by Bloomberg.
The oilfields set to be sold, without a strategic importance for BP, with proven reserves of about 120 million barrels of oil, produced in the first quarter 58,000 barrels per day. British Petroleum announced that it plans to sell assets worth 38 billion dollars by the end of next year, after the accident at the Maconco site, the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, which led to a drop of one third of the market capitalization of the group.
BP’s oil production in the Gulf of Mexico is one of the most profitable in its portfolio, and Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley said the group wants to focus more on major oilfields in the region. The company has six oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and wants to reach 8 by the end of this year, the largest ever held.
Competing companies such as Statoil of Norway also want to expand in the region, where the fees are relatively low and access to American energy market is easy. Two of the BP oilfields on sale are already operational and another two under development. American groups Chevron and Exxon Mobil will most likely be among the bidders, according to one of the sources.
BP announced Monday an agreement to sell a California refinery and 800 gas stations to Tesoro Corp. for about $2.5 billion, as the total assets sold since the beginning of 2010 reached $26.5 billion.
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