August 8, 2011 [PRNewswire] - Blue Dolphin Energy Company announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Blue Dolphin Pipe Line Company, sold its eighty-three and one-third percent (83 1/3 %) interest in the Buccaneer Pipeline to Sunoco Partners Marketing & Terminals L.P. for net proceeds of approximately $3.6 million in cash.
Assets in the sale included the two mile, onshore Buccaneer Pipeline, above ground storage tanks, a barge loading terminal, pumping station and related equipment. These assets consist of the onshore oil storage and marketing portion of the system that gathers and transports oil and natural gas to a barge loading terminal in Freeport, Texas for sale to third parties. The Company expects to book a gain of approximately $3.0 million in the third quarter as a result of the sale.
“Over the past year we have been evaluating strategies to improve Blue Dolphin’s balance sheet,” said Ivar Siem, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “The sale of these underutilized assets generates a significant amount of cash while retaining our revenue producing natural gas operations and preserving our oil marketing capabilities. We will continue to gather and transport oil and natural gas from various offshore fields in the Gulf of Mexico through the Blue Dolphin Pipeline; however, onshore transportation and facilities services, such as storage, will be handled by Sunoco.”
Tanglewood Capital Partners, LLC, a Houston-based investment banking firm, served as exclusive financial advisor to Blue Dolphin throughout the transaction.
Blue Dolphin Energy Company is engaged in the gathering and transportation, as well as the exploration and production, of oil and natural gas in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and the North Sumatra Basin offshore Indonesia.
