BP Risks Losing Status as Top Energy Firm with Sale of Prime Assets

BP risks losing its status as one of the largest and most diverse energy firms in the world as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill continues to haunt it.

So far the UK based company has put aside $38 billion to pay for the fallout, however legal proceedings are still continuing in the courts, so that figure may need to be increased.

BP has been selling various assets in order to raise the $38 billion, equal to two years profits at current oil prices. As expected the less important oil and natural gas fields were the first to be sold, as well as the less profitable alternative energy assets such as BP’s wind farm division. However the latest batch of sales will have shareholders very worried. BP has now begun divesting its prime assets, including its stake in the profitable Gulf of Mexico deepwater oil fields.

BP has just recently sold its Carson Refinery in California to Tesoro for $2.5 billion. The sale included the 266,000 barrel-a-day refinery, the refinery’s current inventory (valued at about $1.3 billion), 800 Arco branded gas stations across the West,  three marine terminals, four storage units, and 114 miles of pipeline.

It also sold its 220 million cubic feet of gas per day capacity Sunray and Hemphill gas processing plants in Texas, along with 2,500 miles of pipelines, to Eagle Rock Energy Partners for $227.5 million.

It is little wonder why billionaire investor T. Boone Pickens has sold all of his 452,111 shares in BP.

By. Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com