TNK-BP close to $1 billion deal with Brazil's HRT, buy a 45% stake in Amazon oil exploration blocks from Brazil's HRT Participacoes ( HRTP3.SA), sources with direct knowledge of the situation said on Friday.
The deal, expected to be signed early next week, would be the largest single upstream foreign investment by Russia's No.3 oil firm, a 50-50 joint venture between BP ( BP.L) and four Soviet-born billionaires.
TNK-BP close to $1 billion deal with Brazil's HRT
(Reuters) - Anglo-Russian oil firm TNK-BP ( TNBP.MM) is close to agreeing on a $1 billion deal to buy a 45 percent stake in Amazon oil exploration blocks from Brazil's HRT Participacoes ( HRTP3.SA), sources with direct knowledge of the situation said on Friday. The deal, expected to be signed early next week, would be the largest single upstream foreign investment by Russia's No.3 oil firm, a 50-50 joint venture between BP ( BP.L) and four Soviet-born billionaires.
The deal will cement the expansion of HRT, a small start-up company that is among a handful of Brazilian firms to challenge the near monopoly held by state-run Petrobras ( PETR4.SA) -- even though HRT's fields are far from Brazil's most coveted oil prospects located in deep Atlantic waters.
"Things are going well ... we are almost there," one source close to TNK-BP management said, confirming comments by other sources familiar with discussions being held in Brazil. The $1 billion purchase will be paid over two years, the source said.
It would represent the third significant transaction for TNK-BP outside Russia, where the access of private companies to promising offshore areas has been curbed in favor of state-controlled Rosneft ( ROSN.MM).
HRT, run by mercurial and jocular geologist Marcio Mello, raised $1.5 billion in a 2010 share offer, wooing investors with prospects in Brazil and Namibia.
A source close to HRT said there were no disputes standing in the way of an agreement between the companies.
Attempts to wrap up the agreement to explore the 21 blocks in the Amazon's Solimoes basin, with net prospective and contingent resources estimated at 783 million barrels, have hit a series of snags this year.
HRT fell into a dispute with its Brazilian partner, Petra Energia, which initially refused to sell its 45 percent stake in that area to TNK-BP under a deal Mello had brokered. Talks were further complicated by last week's ousting of TNK-BP's deputy CEO Maxim Barsky, who had led talks in Brazil.
The deal also carries inherent risks for TNK-BP, which is more focused on producing existing assets than exploring for oil in new fields such as those in HRT's portfolio.
TNK-BP will invest $200 million to $300 million per year for drilling and seismic exploration, the sources said, with additional spending to depend on what discoveries are made.
AMAZON PRODUCTION
The logistically challenging Amazon operations require separating rigs into more than 500 parts and flying them by helicopter to drilling sites to reduce impact on the forest.
But oil production there remains low on the list of perceived environmental threats compared with cattle ranching and soy farming that are key drivers of deforestation.
Petrobras this month celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Urucu oil and gas discovery in the Amazon, a project that has been recognized as a pioneer in low-impact energy production.
Since that discovery, Petrobras has focused on offshore oil exploration that now provides close to 80 percent of its output, and is now working to ramp up production in the deep-water region known as the subsalt which is believed to hold more than 50 billion barrels of crude.
If the sides reach a deal, TNK-BP would acquire an option to raise its stake in the Solimoes concession to 55 percent, sources said. It was not clear if TNK-BP would then be able to take over as operator of the project.
The Amazon move represents a significant departure for TNK-BP in the international arena, after it snapped up producing assets from BP in Venezuela and Vietnam. "This is exploration, not production," a source said.
The company, which pumped 1.5 million barrels per day of crude oil in September and accounts for a fifth of BP's equity production, wants to boost the international share of its output to 25 percent over the next 30 years.
Growth is crucial for TNK-BP outside Russia, where its portfolio of reserves is dominated by aging "brownfields," or fields which have been producing for a long time, and its next significant increments are due to start producing only around mid-decade.
The four co-owners of TNK-BP -- Mikhail Fridman, German Khan, Viktor Vekselberg and Len Blavatnik -- mounted a successful legal challenge against the BP-Rosneft deal, which collapsed in May.
They had argued that TNK-BP should serve as the vehicle for BP's failed offshore exploration pact with Rosneft, which has since struck a partnership with ExxonMobil ( XOM.N) to explore the Arctic.
They are now pursuing a ruling in arbitration that BP made itself liable for damages by striking the Rosneft deal in violation of an exclusivity clause in the TNK-BP shareholders agreement.
Management at TNK-BP has meanwhile requested board permission to launch damages claims against BP and its executives in Britain and the British Virgin Islands, where the 50-50 venture is domiciled.
(Additional reporting by Brian Ellsworth in Rio de Janeiro and Tom Bergin in London; editing by Gunna Dickson) |
