Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Interior Alaska politicians have mixed reactions to BP sale rumors - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
A bit of a roundabout trip for this development, as the piece I cite is actually a reaction to a report in London's Sunday Times that BP is in talks to sell its stake in Prudhoe Bay to Apache. But, since this is the piece where I actually read the news (and since the Sunday Times charges for its subscriptions), we'll go with this one.
For those who don't know, Amoco Petroleum was one of the pioneers on Alaska's North Slope, possibly its most important one. Amoco was bought out by BP long ago, but much of Amoco's value was in its North Slope position. BP selling its North Slope stake is akin to the White House announcing that the Library of Congress had been outsourced to Google.
The News-Miner piece has a quaint feel to it; State Representative Jay Ramras suggests this sale means the state needs to reform O&G taxes to encourage investment, which conveniently ignores the little issue of BP needing all the cash it can get its hands on these days.
As for pipeline implications, I'm going out on a limb to say that if this report is accurate, and the deal is actually concluded, that it effectively kills Denali. Why? Because BP has no reason to build a pipeline it won't be shipping its own gas on, and Apache doesn't have the clout to pick up the torch on a massive (and expensive) project that was already swimming against the current.
Tell me I'm wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment