BP Forges Ahead With Deepwater Gas Field Plans in India
June 15 2017 - 10:44AM
Dow Jones News
By Sarah Kent
LONDON-- BP PLC said Thursday it is pushing ahead with
long-delayed efforts to develop natural gas offshore India in a $6
billion investment with India's Reliance Industries Limited.
The companies are expecting to produce 425 million cubic feet of
gas a day from deep water gas fields roughly 70 kilometers off
India's east coast by 2020, in the first of three projects they
plan to develop with the funds. Between 2020 and 2022 they're
expecting to add another 1 billion cubic feet a day of new gas
production, assuming the other two projects are approved by the
government.
BP first partnered with RIL in 2011, spending $7.2 billion for a
30% stake in oil and gas fields operated by the Indian company. The
deal was the company's first major investment since its fatal
blowout in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, and came at a time when BP
was desperately selling assets elsewhere to help pay for the
fallout from the spill.
It was meant to mark a step toward new growth prospects in a
market where demand for oil and gas was growing rapidly, but for
years government caps on gas prices limited profitability and
stymied investment.
"It's taken a while to develop a natural gas price to help
develop these projects," BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley told the
industry CERAWeek conference in Houston in March. "It is behind in
developing these resources."
But recent reforms to encourage development of India's natural
resources, have helped to remove uncertainty over the gas price
energy companies can hope to achieve for new production.
Now, the British oil giant seems ready to pile in again, hoping
to take advantage of India's rapidly growing market. The country
already consumes over 5 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day,
according to BP. It hopes to double that number by 2022.
Though weak oil and gas prices have pressured spending across
the industry and delayed new projects, BP has made it clear that it
is back in growth mode after years of retrenchment. In addition to
its latest investment in India, the company intends to add 800,000
barrels a day of new production by the end of the decade and has
ambitious plans to increase profit from its refining and marketing
arm.
In addition to their plans to boost gas production, BP and RIL
also said Thursday they would look for other opportunities in India
in conventional fuel retail as well as lower carbon
alternatives.
Write to Sarah Kent at sarah.kent@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 15, 2017 10:29 ET (14:29 GMT)
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