BP signs $2.2 bn Abu Dhabi oil deal

Abu Dhabi : British oil giant BP secured a 10-per cent share in an onshore oil concession in Abu Dhabi yesterday in a deal worth $2.2 billion, the companies said.

BP signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) to take a stake in the Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Petroleum Operations (ADCO) which operates the 40-year concession.

“This agreement will provide BP with long-term access to significant and competitive resources that we already understand very well,” BP chief executive Bob Dudley said in a statement.

BP said it would pay Abu Dhabi with new shares worth £1.76 billion ($2.2bn), leaving the emirate with a two-per cent stake in the British company.

BP will second up to 50 technical staff to ADCO, whose oilfields produce 1.4 million barrels per day.

“This agreement marks a milestone in our efforts to forge new partnership models that bring technology, expertise and financing aimed at maximising the value of our resources and supporting the transfer of knowledge,” ADNOC chief executive Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber said.

In January, French giant Total clinched a 10-percent participating share in the concession. Inpex Corp. of Japan secured five percent and South Korea’s GS Energy three percent.

BP had held a 9.5pc stake in a 75-year concession that expired in late 2014.

Other companies with shares in the old concession included Total, Exxon of the United States, Anglo-Dutch firm Shell and Portugal’s Partex.