April 09, 2024 [Reuters]- BP is close to an agreement to sell some of its Trinidad and Tobago oil and gas assets to Anglo-French oil company Perenco, according to three people familiar with the talks.

BP is Trinidad and Tobago’s largest natural gas producer with an output of just over 1.3 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), most of which is exported to Europe and Latin America as liquefied natural gas (LNG). About 18% of BP’s LNG production came out of the Caribbean island in 2022, according to its annual report.

BP’s gas output, however, has fallen in the last five years by almost 1 bcfd from over 2.2 bcfd, and it is in talks with Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela to develop a shared offshore gas field in the Caribbean.

The oil major is discussing with Perenco the divestment of its Amherstia, Cashima and Immortelle fields. The fields have been producing for more than 20 years and in 2004 had a combined output of close to 2 bcfd, but has declined significantly and now produces just under 200 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd).

“We are close to agreeing on a final price and signing on the dotted line. This will ensure that Perenco can continue to maintain or even increase production from those fields,” said one person familiar with the talks.

BP and Perenco declined to comment. The price being discussed could not immediately be learned.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Energy Stuart Young did not immediately comment on the proposed sale.

“We will have a deal and announcement well before the end of the summer,” said a second person familiar with the transaction.

Perenco has operations in Africa, Latin America and Europe with a combined net global production of 420,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), according to its website, with 10,000 boepd being produced from its Teak Samman Poui asset in Trinidad.

BP operates mainly out of the Columbus Basin in Trinidad, where it has discovered over 20 trillion cubic feet of gas and more than 2 billion barrels of oil. The Columbus basin borders Venezuelan waters and BP’s Trinidad President told Reuters in January that its future on the island is in the relatively unexplored deep water province.

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