BP to quit Alaska after 60 years with $5.6 billion sale to Hilcorp

[turbinetree]

Source: Reuters

Ron Bousso, Tanishaa Nadkar

4 Min Read

(Reuters) - British oil major BP Plc (BP.L) on Tuesday agreed to sell all its Alaskan properties for $5.6 billion to privately held Hilcorp Energy Co, exiting a region where it operated for 60 years.

The deal, which includes interests in the most prolific oil field in U.S. history at Prudhoe Bay, and the 800-mile (1,300-km) Trans Alaska Pipeline, is part of BP’s plan to raise $10 billion over the next two years through asset sales to further strengthen its balance sheet, it said.

For years, BP has been reducing its role in Alaska, where oil production for fallen with declines at the Prudhoe Bay field. BP, which began working in Alaska in 1959, is the operator and holds a 26% stake in Prudhoe, where production began in 1977.

In 2014, BP sold Hilcorp half its share of an Alaskan project. This year, the two were due to decide whether to go ahead with an ambitious $1.5 billion offshore project that requires construction of a manmade island.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bp-divestiture/bp-to-quit-alaska-after-60-years-with-5-6-billion-sale-to-hilcorp-idUSKCN1VH21N?il=0

[JudyM]

1. BP has been in Alaska since the year it became a state. Hm. Apparently they were ready.

[Demonaut]

4. BP lost its patience with a well that produces but too slow a rate

they have the money to build quickly on new high producing wells

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. If BP is selling b/c declining revenue

I am wondering what Hilcorp is getting from the sale?

[Quackers]

3. Pump it dry and then lease it out for gold mining. Just a guess. nt

[clementine613]

5. They've stolen all the money there is to steal...

... time to get out.