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    UK BP Completes US Shale Deal

Summary

BP has completed the $10.5bn purchase of BHP’s US unconventional assets in a landmark deal.

by: William Powell

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Natural Gas & LNG News, Americas, Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions, Exploration & Production, News By Country, United States

UK BP Completes US Shale Deal

BP has completed the $10.5bn purchase of BHP’s US unconventional assets in a landmark deal that will significantly upgrade the UK major's US onshore oil and gas portfolio and help drive long-term growth, it said October 31.

The acquisition – which was announced in July and closed as scheduled on October 31 – adds oil and gas production of 190,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe)/d and 4.6bn boe of discovered resources in the liquids-rich regions of the Permian and Eagle Ford basins in Texas and in the Haynesville natural gas basin in East Texas and Louisiana.

Following integration, the transaction will be accretive to earnings, is estimated to generate more than $350mn of annual pre-tax synergies and is expected to boost upstream pre-tax free cash flow by $1bn, to $14-15bn in 2021.

“By every measure, this is a transformational deal for our Lower 48 business. It is an important step in our strategy of growing value in upstream and a world-class addition to BP’s global portfolio,” said BP’s upstream head Bernard Looney. “We look forward now to safely integrating these great assets into our business and are excited about the potential they have for delivering growth well into the next decade.”

BP’s Lower 48 business also announced today that it is changing its name to BPX Energy. The change marks a new era of growth for BP’s US onshore oil and gas unit, which has operated as a separate entity since 2015 and has achieved material improvements in operational and financial performance since then.

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BHP issued a statement November 1 about the completion of its US onshore shale divestment to BP.