The world’s biggest miner BHP Billiton Ltd yesterday announced the sale of its US shale oil and gas operations to BP PLC for US$10.5 billion, a heavy loss, but a potential windfall for shareholders.
The Anglo-Australian firm spent US$20 billion in 2011 to acquire the assets, but the sector later experienced a fall in prices, hammering profits.
It prompted BHP to announce last year plans to exit the business.
With its net debt currently toward the lower end of its target range of US$10 billion to US$15 billion, the money raised is set to be returned to shareholders, either through dividends or share buybacks.
“We are pleased that we have agreed to sell all of our shale assets in two simple transactions that provide certainty for shareholders and our employees,” BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie said.
“The sale of our onshore US assets is consistent with our long-term plan to continue to simplify and strengthen our portfolio to generate shareholder value and returns for decades to come,” he said.
Under the deal, BP American Production Co, a subsidiary of the British giant, is to acquire Petrohawk Energy Corp, which holds BHP’s Eagle Ford, Haynesville and Permian assets, for US$10.5 billion.
In a separate transaction, a unit of the privately owned Merit Energy Co will buy BHP Billiton Petroleum (Arkansas) Inc and BHP Billiton Petroleum (Fayetteville) for US$300 million.
Both sales are expected to be completed by the end of October.
In addition to its demerger of South32 Ltd in 2015, BHP has now announced or completed more than US$18 billion of divestments over the past six years.
It is all part of its plan to focus on its most profitable core long-life operations — iron ore, copper, petroleum, coal and potash.
BHP said it expected to record a one-off post-tax charge of about US$2.8 billion in its full-year results due next month on account of the BP and Merit Energy deals.
Despite the shale operations proving to be a poor investment for BHP, BP chief executive Bob Dudley called the businesses “world class” with rising oil prices boasting their prospects.
“This is a transformational acquisition ... a major step in delivering our upstream strategy and a world-class addition to BP’s distinctive portfolio,” he said in a statement. “Given our confidence in BP’s future — further bolstered by additional earnings and cash flow from this deal — we are increasing the dividend, reflecting our long-standing commitment to growing distributions to shareholders.”
The Eagle Ford, Haynesville and Permian fields produce oil and gas that is sold both domestically in the US and to international customers, producing about 58.8 million barrels of oil equivalent annually.
BP is already a significant operator in the US onshore oil and gas sector, pumping 315,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day across five states a year.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS