Late last week, BP
The deal
The sale is a boon for Plains All American Pipeline, a company with 2,480 miles of pipelines and 8.3 billion cubic feet of daily gas-processing capacity. BP is selling the company 2,600 miles of pipeline, special gas-extracting plants, and storage facilities.
BP said it will continue to operate in Canada, placing its efforts on joint ventures that focus on oil extraction from Alberta's oil sands. While oil is more lucrative than natural gas liquids, oil sands development is also more expensive. If the price of oil should decline for some reason, focusing solely on oil sands will hurt BP's bottom line in Canada.
Other recent divestitures
In September, BP jettisoned its fuel marketing operations in five African countries for $296 million. Two months later, the company sold its stake in a deep-water field in the Gulf of Mexico to Stone Energy
Still on the table
The company has two U.S. refineries up for sale, one in California and one in Texas. BP is expecting to make $4 billion if or when it finds a buyer. Originally hoping for a bite by the end of 2012, the company has pushed the timetable back to 2013.
On top of that, BP attempted to sell its stake in an Argentine joint venture to CNOOC
BP must see something in the future of this field, because Chinese companies are buying up overseas oil and gas outfits like they're going out of style. Last year, Sinopec
CNOOC has also gone on record saying it will continue to look for overseas opportunities.
Foolish takeaway
After the Canadian gas deal, BP will have sold just shy of $21 billion in assets since the Deepwater Horizon disaster, inching closer to its $30 billion target. The company has to be careful balancing the asset divestments that could ultimately result in a decline in production and hurt the bottom line. Ultimately, it may actually be a blessing that it has held on to its Argentine joint venture.
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