BP May Divest in Favour of Reliance

After acquiring a 30% stake in a deal worth $7.2 billion in Reliance Industries Ltd, BP is mulling to further deepen the partnership with a possible divestment of some of its assets in Europe and North America in favour of the Indian partner, according to media reports.

The company had already announced $25 billion to $30 billion worth of divestments and would continue  to manage its portfolio with additional asset sales, the Economic Times quoted the BP chief executive Bob Dudley as saying.

"...I'll sit down with Mukesh (Ambani) and the team at Reliance and see what their aspirations are and there may be prospects there," Dudley told the paper.

"There might be some divestments, they might be joining us in some projects, or it could be that we identify new projects together -- acquisitions, entry into other kinds of projects, so, I think all the scope is there," the newspaper reported him as saying.

Dudley who was on a visit to India and met the government officials, also touched upon on some potential (for the JV) in North America and Europe.

Ambani was on record saying on Wednesday that the Reliance-BP partnership would not be restricted to India, but was presently focusing only on opportunities in the country.