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PetroVietnam, Indian partner eye BP assets
PetroVietnam Group plans to purchase BP's stake in offshore exploitation projects that the British oil giant has offered for sale, said PetroVietnam Chairman Dinh La Thang.
The group is mapping out its plans and will submit them to the Government for approval. PetroVietnam and India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) are currently partners of BP's offshore exploitation projects in the country.
Under the agreement, if one of the partners in the joint venture withdraws capital from a project, it has to offer the stake to the remaining businesses first. PetroVietnam has plans to co-ordinate with other partners, including ONGC to purchase the stake.
However, Thang declined to clarify the purchasing process, price for the stake, or proposed budget set aside for the deal. "PetroVietnam will submit its plans to the Government, we only can acquire the stake if the Government gives it the nod," he said.
"This project will bring great effectiveness if we devise a good plan. We will definitely buy the stake, but we will only acquire it if the price is reasonable. We won't buy the stake at any cost," he said.
If the plan is approved, commercial banks will be ready to provide loans for the purchase, he added.
He also claimed that the funds available for the deal were not very significant. Despite the various rumours circulating about the value of the stake, none of the figures had been officially confirmed and he declined to comment.
Although BP Viet Nam also declined to comment about the total value of its assets, Reuters reported that they are worth an estimated US$1 billion.
According to the Government website's report on July 22, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung received Murli Deora, Indian Oil Minister in Da Lat City. The prime minister encouraged Indian enterprises to expand investment and business in Viet Nam, especially in the energy sector.
The International Business Times on July 7 quoted a statement by Indian Oil Secretary S Sundareshan that ONGC and PetroVietnam were expected to submit a formal offer within weeks to buy BP's stake in an offshore Vietnamese gas field.
ONGC has a 45 per cent share in Block 6.1 in the Nam Con Son basin, off Viet Nam's southeast coast. While BP holds 35 per cent of the project and PetroVietnam holds the remainder, the newspaper stated.
"When asked by when a formal bid would be made to acquire BP's stake, he said it was a matter of a few weeks," the newspaper reported.
Besides ONGC, Chinese groups, inczluding CNOOC and Sinopec, and Thai PTTEP, have also expressed their willingness to purchase BP's stake.
A couple of weeks ago, BP said it plans to sell its upstream assets in Viet Nam to raise cash to pay for the company's oil spill off the US coast.
The assets include Lan Tay, Lan Do gas fields and facilities, Nam Con Son Gas Pipeline and Dinh Co Terminal and Phu My Power Plant No 3.
A spokeswoman for BP Viet Nam also declined to comment, saying "It's too early to talk about the buyers".
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