TNK-BP eyes Bp’s Vietnam gas assets

Russia’s No. 3 oil firm TNK-BP (TNBPI.RTS) would like to buy a 35% stake in a BP gas deposit in Vietnam known as Block 06-1, TNK-BP CEO Maxim Barsky said on Wednesday.

Russia’s No. 3 oil firm TNK-BP (TNBPI.RTS) would like to buy a 35% stake in a BP gas deposit in Vietnam known as Block 06-1, TNK-BP CEO Maxim Barsky said on Wednesday.

“Yes, we have a proposal from BP about block 06-1. I hope that at the next board meeting we will make a proposal,” he told reporters at a ceremony for the signing of an oil contract with Petrovietnam.

He also said Petrovietnam had offered TNK-BP a 50% share in an oil refinery with a capacity of 6 million tonnes a year. In exchange, the Vietnamese firm could enter an oil producing asset in Russia, he added, without giving details.

“We are interested in this,” Barsky said.

TNK-BP shifted its strategy following the 2008 departure of then chief executive Robert Dudley by focusing on both the Russian and foreign markets, after previously operating mainly in Russia under BP’s aegis.

The company is already developing its own joint-venture project in Venezuela, and a company spokesman in July said TNK-BP was considering buying BP’s assets there.

BP has invested $1.3 billion in the Nam Con Son offshore project, but it is looking to sell a range of assets to raise funds in order to pay off costs associated with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Barsky also said that TNK-BP hopes to sign a preliminary agreement with Petrovietnam on the refinery stake at the end of next month when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visits the Southeast Asian nation.

TNK-BP vice president Jonathan Kollek also reiterated that his company will provide 100,000 tonnes of ESPO crude to Vietnam per month during 12 months.

The executive also said the shipments, which will begin in November, “might be a bit more” than the contracted volume without providing further details. – Reuters

Tags: BP Vietnam, TNK-BP, Vietnam oil and gas