US oil firm considers asset sell-off

American oil giant ConocoPhillips plans to sell its oil and natural gas assets off Vietnam’s coast.

“ConocoPhillips will be marketing all of its assets in Vietnam. This includes two upstream assets in the Cuu Long Basin and an equity share of the Nam Con Son pipeline,” John McLemore, a company spokesman told VIR last week.

“Our experience in Vietnam has been positive, our business has been successful and our relationships have been good,” McLemore said without further details.

Representatives from the Ho Chi Minh City-based headquarters of ConocoPhillips Cuulong Limited, an affiliate of ConocoPhillips, declined to comment when contacted by VIR.

Foreign news services last week quoted McLemore as saying the company was marketing its assets in Vietnam as part of the divestiture programme. ConocoPhillips’ Vietnam assets was valued at about $1.5 billion, foreign media quoted Paul Sankey, a Deutsche Bank AG analyst, as saying in an April 27 note to clients.

ConocoPhillips has a 23.3 percent share in a cluster of five fields in Block 15-1 in the Cuu Long Basin. It holds a 36 percent stake of the Rang Dong field in Block 15-2 in the same basin.

The company also is offering its 16.3 percent stake in the Nam Con Son gas pipeline which connects the Nam Con Son Basin with southern Vietnam.

In a previous interview with VIR, ConocoPhillips (UK) Cuulong Company president Kathy A.McGill said that the company had made significant investments in Vietnam since the opening of the company office in 1996 spending more than $1.3 billion to date.

On giving its approval for 2011 capital programmes in February this year, ConocoPhillips said that about $6 billion would be invested in exploration and production in Europe, the Asia-Pacific and Africa.

Within the Asia-Pacific region, funds will be used for further development of the coalbed methane-to-liquefied natural gas (LNG) project associated with the Australia Pacific LNG joint venture, as well as for the development of new fields offshore Malaysia, Indonesia and offshore Vietnam. – VIR

Tags: ConocoPhillips