BP is to sell its gas fields and gas pipeline in Vietnam as part of its effort to raise US$10 billion from divestments to cover the cost of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a spokesman for the company said Tuesday, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
“We have talked to the government and staff,” about the plans to sell the gas fields, which feed a power station that supplies a significant proportion of Vietnam’s electricity, he said. “We will now start looking for buyers and they will start looking for us,” he said.
BP said earlier Tuesday it will sell its oil and gas exploration and production assets in Pakistan.
ING analyst Jason Kenney told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday he estimates that BP could raise about $1.7 billion by pulling out of both countries.
“I think the point is that they have a lot of assets that are considered peripheral [to BP] but that could be of interest to other people,” Kenney said.
The two country’s combined gas output accounted for just over 2% of the company’s total gas output last year.
On Monday BP announced the signing of a new agreement with the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) to develop the significant hydrocarbon resources in the North Alexandria and West Mediterranean Deepwater concessions.
Production from the West Nile Delta development is projected to reach up to 1bn cubic feet per day, providing a major new source of gas for the domestic market in Egypt, the company said.
BP which has been in Egypt for almost 50 years operates and holds 60% of the North Alexandria concession with RWE Dea holding the remaining 40%. It also has an 80/20 majority stake of the West Mediterranean Deepwater concession with RWE Dea.
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