In the - In a related story.....
BHP to sell PNG lock, stock and
barrel
By Ian Howarth
BHP's massive asset sell-off has intensified with the
company set to sell its entire suite of Papua New Guinea
assets, its remaining Timor Sea assets and possibly its
Minerva gas field in offshore Victoria for up to $800
million.
The group's extensive holdings in the Timor Gap Zone of
Co-operation treaty area are not believed to be included
in the asset sale program despite the escalating
uncertainty over the future of the Timor Gap treaty.
BHP Petroleum (BHPP) has already sold assets worth
well over $1 billion in the past two years and told the
investment community a year ago that its asset sales
program was "effectively complete".
Since then BHPP has sold its interest in the troubled
Bayu-Undan project in the Timor Gap Zone of
Co-operation and its stake in the east coast gas pipeline,
now being built by Duke Energy.
BHPP has opened a technical data room in Port
Moresby where it is hoping to attract a trade sale for its
PNG assets which includes a 9.7 per cent interest in the
Kutubu and nearby Gobe oil and gas fields as well as
interests in two retention leases within the PPL 101
exploration permit area.
BHPP is also offering to sell its remaining Timor Sea
petroleum assets, excluding its 25 per cent interest in the
Laminaria field, set to begin production within the next
three weeks.
Petroleum industry sources have also suggested that
BHPP may be planning to quit its 90 per cent interest in
the Minerva gas field off the west coast of Victoria.
Difficulties believed to be associated with the
ammonia/urea fertiliser project underpinning the Minerva
gas field development, look set to delay the project's
development well into next year.
BHPP was initially hoping to take the Minerva
development to the BHP board in September and then in
November, but a BHP spokesman said the board
presentation will not take place until next year after some
"outstanding commercial issues are resolved".
The sale of the petroleum assets continues the aggressive
clean-up of the BHPP portfolio which is being focused
sharply on the North West Shelf and Bass Strait regions
in Australia, the Gulf of Mexico deepwater area, Algeria
and the UK.
In the Timor Sea, BHPP retains interests in several
exploration permits, now being offered to joint-venture
partners and outsiders in an attempt to move out of the
area.
The exception is BHP's 25 per cent stake in the
Laminaria/Corallina joint venture, operated by Woodside
Petroleum.
BHPP previously sold its interests in the Jabiru, Challis
and Skua fields in the Timor Sea.
In PNG, BHP has retained its 9.7 per cent stake in the
productive Kutubu project. According to PNG insiders
BHP has taken little interest in exploration or new
developments in its permits "for several years".
One source said BHPP had adopted, "a very passive
role [in PNG] in recent years".
The PNG assets are estimated to be worth well over
$300 million.
Early last year, with oil prices around half the price of
today, British Petroleum (now BP-Amoco) sold its 19.8
per cent stake in the Kutubu field, plus associated
exploration permits, to Oil Search Ltd in a deal worth
$600 million.
The leading candidate to acquire the Kutubu stake would
be either Oil Search Ltd or Santos Ltd, which is
desperate to build its oil inventory and gain access to the
PNG to Queensland gas pipeline project which will be
fed with gas from the Kutubu and nearby fields. |
