Takeover: OGDCL submits joint bid for BP assets

Analysts estimate assets to be worth up to $690 million.

KARACHI: The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) said it has bid for British Petroleum’s (BP) assets in Pakistan, estimated by analysts to be worth as much as $690 million.

OGDCL, the largest listed company of the country, said it has made a joint bid with Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) for the assets, but did not disclose a price and offered no further details.

BP announced plans to sell its upstream assets in Pakistan in July, as part of a $10 billion global asset sale aimed at raising cash to pay for its Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

BP’s upstream assets and related operations, which it plans to divest, include nine producing and exploration onshore blocks and four offshore exploration blocks in the Arabian Sea, according to OGDCL sources.

They contribute about 14 per cent of total domestic oil production and six per cent of gas production. UBS analysts estimated in a July research note that BP’s fields in Pakistan are worth $690 million, while Farooq Najam, an analyst at Invisor Securities Ltd, estimated the assets to be worth around $362 million.

BP’s main assets are in Badin, Sindh, comprising four concessions - Badin-I, Badin-II, Badin-IIR and Badin-III.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2010.