LONDON – BP, seeking cash to meet the costs of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, is considering selling fields in Colombia, Venezuela and Vietnam, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
BP, Britain’s largest oil producer, may also dispose of its 60 percent holding in Pan American Energy, Argentina’s second-largest oil producer, the person said, declining to be identified because the information is confidential. The London-based company has a gas field and pipeline in Vietnam and holds stakes in three production ventures in Venezuela. BP is a partner in Colombia’s two biggest oil fields, where production peaked in 1999.
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BP pledged to raise $10 billion through asset sales in the next 12 months to pay the costs of compensating victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill caused by the blowout of a well in April.
“These assets aren’t ones that they’ve been focusing on as much as in other regions,” said David Hart, an analyst at Westhouse Securities Ltd. in London. “Pan American stands out because they can get close to the amount they’re targeting with one asset.”
Cnooc Ltd., the largest offshore oil producer, may be a bidder for the Pan American stake after it acquired a 20 percent holding when it agreed in March to pay $3.1 billion for half of BP’s partner, Bridas Corp. The transaction values BP’s stake at more than $9 billion.
“Pan American is the obvious place to start,” said Christopher Wheaton, who manages about $400 million of securities at Allianz RCM’s Energy Fund in London, including BP shares. “It’s got a valuation from Cnooc in mid-March and is one of the assets you could carve out of the portfolio easily.”
BP spokesman Mark Salt in London declined to comment.
The company’s shares have dropped 50 percent since the April 20 blowout that sank the Deepwater Horizon rig and killed 11 workers, wiping about $91 billion off BP’s value.
Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg and Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward agreed to set up a $20 billion compensation fund after meeting President Barack Obama last month. To pay for it, the company suspended its $10 billion annual dividend, cut capital spending and promised asset sales.
BP produced 3.9 million barrels of oil and gas in the first quarter, second only to Exxon Mobil Corp. among private-sector oil producers.
Pan American, a venture created when BP bought Amoco Corp. in 1998, produces about 100,000 barrels of crude oil a day and 450 cubic meters of gas, according to the BP website.
In Colombia, BP developed the Cusiana and Cupiagua fields in the early 1990s. The fields produce 177,000 a barrels a day, according to the company. Partners include state oil company Ecopetrol SA and a unit of Total SA.
BP is a partner with the state oil company in Venezuela’s Petroperija, Boqueron and Petromonagas ventures.
BP discovered four offshore gas fields south of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam in the early 1990s.
As BP’s costs for the spill climb, it is billing partners Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Japan’s Mitsui for their shares of the cleanup.
BP has billed Anadarko, a 25 percent stakeholder in the blown-out well, for more than a quarter billion dollars so far. It also has reportedly billed Mitsui, a 10 percent partner, for $111 million.
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