LONDON/NEW YORK: Britain’s BP has launched the sale of US oil and gas onshore assets that could raise more than $3 billion to help pay for other fields in the United States it bought in October from BHP, industry and banking sources said.
The sale proceeds will partly fund the $10.5 billion acquisition of BHP’s onshore assets that are mostly around oil-producing fields in Texas and Louisiana. BP had said it would sell $5 billion to $6 billion to finance the deal.
The London-listed firm wants to focus on production from its holdings in the Permian and Eagle Ford basins to match rivals Exxon Mobil and Chevron whose production there is set to rise sharply in coming years. BP’s onshore business, which it has rebranded as BPX, sent out information packages last week on the assets it was selling and its representatives held a meeting in New York with the management teams of potential buyers, the sources said.
This follows a series of informal talks the company held with private equity firms since the end of November aimed at gauging interest in the assets, two of the sources said.
Interested parties include US buyout funds Carlyle and Warburg Pincus, one of the sources said. — Reuters
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