As the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya comes crashing down, despite regime attempts to butcher demonstrators — here’s a timely reminder on corporate exposure.
Much of it, as you’d expect, is concentrated in oil production. (Output at the country’s Nafoora oil field had stopped on Monday due to strikes, incidentally.)
In one of the biggest foreign direct investments to date in India, BP is to pay $7.2bn to Reliance Industries in a deal that will give it a 30 per cent stake in 23 oil and gas blocks.
The blocks together cover approximately 270,000 sq km, the companies said in a statement on Monday, making the partnership “India’s largest private sector holder of exploration acreage”. BP and Reliance will also form a 50:50 joint venture for the sourcing and marketing of gas.
BP: IOCs and NOCs could partner up all over the world UPDATED
BP’s partnership with Rosneft was remarkable for a number of reasons, not least that it was done against the wishes of BP’s partners in TNK-BP and was the first equity partnership between a private international and a public national oil company. It is also a partnership not limited to developing Russian assets only: the two parties have a 50/50 ownership of Ruhr Oel, a German refining joint venture.
Ian Smale, BP’s group head of strategy and policy, told an audience in London on Monday that the two companies would be looking at further JVs outside Russia, and described the arrangement as an example of how IOCs and NOCs could form closer partnerships in future.
IEA: We have reserves on standby if needed
As protests move from the east of Libya towards its capital Tripoli, triggering the decision by BP to suspend some of its operations in the country, markets are nervously watching the oil price.
According to David Fyfe, the International Energy Agency’s head of oil industry and markets division, around 50,000 barrels per day of crude production have been shut in because of the anti-Gaddafi protests and the regime’s response to them.
So concerned is the IEA that Fyfe felt the need to remind delegates at International Petroleum week, which started in London today, that his organisation was sitting on 1.6bn barrels of publicly-held crude stocks, which it could tap if supplies were seriously interrupted.
Energy headlines: BP suspends Libya operations
- BP Statoil suspend Libya operations – WSJ (£)
- BP prepares to evacuate some Libya staff – AFP
- BP suspends oil exploration in Libya as violence worsens – Bloomberg
- Crude up on Libya unrest – WSJ (£)
- Oil flows, but high prices jangle nerves – NY Times
- Oil groups rush to grab slice of East Africa – FT
- European gas pipeline costs double – The Guardian
- TNK-BP considers role in Rosneft tie-up – FT
- Judge puts off Chevron decision – WSJ (£)
- Centrica risks probe with £2bn bonanza – FT
- Centrica has ‘nothing to hide’ from profits inquiry – The Telegraph
- France to discuss nuclear industry fate – Reuters
- Cameron intervenes in Cairn sale – FT
- Essar agrees break fee on Shell’s Stanlow – FT
- DCC ignores OFT and buys rival Pace – The Telegraph
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