BP's Divestment Programme on Track: Dudley
BP is on track to meet its divestment target of $10bn, CEO Bob Dudley said on the sidelines of the India Energy Forum by Ceraweek that took place in New Delhi earlier this week.
“BP made a commitment to divest $10bn in 2019 and 2020. We have already crossed the $7.6bn mark with the sale of our assets in Alaska. And it is not right for me to say where the others will come from although it is on track,” Dudley said.
In August this year, BP agreed to sell its entire business in Alaska to Hilcorp Alaska for $5.6bn. The sale will include BP's entire upstream and midstream business in the state, including BP Exploration (Alaska), owner of all of BP's upstream oil and gas interests in Alaska, and BP Pipelines (Alaska)'s interest in the Trans Alaska Pipeline System.
Talking about its Indian upstream project in partnership with Reliance Industries (RIL), Dudley said that they can sell the gas produced from its KG-D6 project off India’s east coast without violating the terms of the production sharing contract.
“The $5bn project is coming onstream and we would like to sell that gas to our customers as well as to ourselves,” he said. “Yes, I am confident that the contract will allow us to sell gas to industrial customers that include ourselves.”
In 2017, BP and RIL announced their decision to make additional investments in the KG-D6 block off the east coast of India over next three to five years to develop three projects. The three projects will be developed in an integrated manner. Last year, RIL said first gas from the new fields is expected by 2020.
Dudley, during a session at the India Energy Forum, said that India still has close to 100 trillion ft3 of natural gas resources to be exploited. Deep waters off India’s east coast have natural gas but developing these resources is not cheap and it will all depend on the price, he told delegates.
During the press meet, Dudley said that BP and RIL may roll out charging networks across India in the future. “Early days yet, but we are working on it,” he said.
In August this year, BP and RIL announced their fuel retailing partnership for India. The joint venture, which is owned 51% by RIL and 49% by BP, plans to set up 5,500 fuel retail outlets across the country.