BP Buys Timis out of Senegal

BP has said it agreed this month to acquire the full 30% minority participating interests held by Timis Corporation in two blocks offshore Senegal.

Separately, the UK major on April 27 said it had agreed a $1.68bn divestment of a 50% stake in a Chinese petrochemical joint venture to Sinopec.

The Senegal blocks involved in the BP-Timis deal are Saint-Louis Profond and Cayar Profond. BP said its agreement is subject to government approval and follows its entry into Mauritania and Senegal through an agreement with Kosmos Energy, announced in December 2016 and finalised in 1Q2017.

BP confirmed its agreement to buy out Timis's Senegal interests to NGW April 27 but did not disclose financial details; news of the deal was first published by the Africa Intelligence newsletter earlier this week.

On completion of its agreements with Timis, interests in the two Senegal blocks will be BP 30%, the joint venture 'Kosmos BP Senegal' 60%, and Senegal's state-owned upstream firm Petrosen 10%.  (The 'Kosmos BP Senegal' joint venture itself is 49.99%-owned by BP and 50.01% by Kosmos)

This in turn would mean effective working interests in the two Senegal blocks of around 60% for BP, close to 30% for Kosmos, with Petrosen 10%

BP and Kosmos are considering development of a floating Tortue gas liquefaction (FLNG) project that would launch in the early 2020s, and exploring to firm up oil development opportunities. Last year BP agreed to farm into Kosmos's interests offshore Mauritania and Senegal, committing to invest $1bn. Timis Corp is owned by controlled by Romanian-Australian magnate Frank Timis and owns other minority exploration interests in West Africa.

Divestment to Sinopec

BP announced April 27 its agreement to sell its 50% stake in the Shanghai SECCO Petrochemical Company Limited (Secco) for $1.68bn to Gaoqiao Petrochemical Co, wholly-owned by Sinopec, BP's existing partner in the joint venture. The deal is expected to complete by end-2017. The UK major said the sale was part of its rationale to focus globally where it has a competitive advantage, but that China would remain a key region for BP's chemicals business. Based in Shanghai, Secco is a major producer of olefins - ethylene and propylene - together with polymers and other derivatives. 

Mark Smedley