BP sells 2 Venezuela oil field assets for $160 mln

www.forbes.com Reuters, 02.25.03, 7:30 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Oil major BP <BP.L> sold its stakes in two Venezuelan exploration blocks to Europe's Perenco for $160 million, shedding assets that produced 26,100 barrels per day in 2002, BP said on Tuesday. BP said the asset sale was part of a general corporate restructuring and had nothing do with the country's ongoing political crisis, which sparked an oil strike in December that severely disrupted the oil sector of the world's No. 5 crude exporter. "I would like to underscore the fact that this does not relate to the political crisis. This is purely a commercially driven decision," a BP spokesman said. Venezuela's state-owned oil firm PDVSA still must approve the sale, BP said. The world's third-biggest oil company said it was selling its 60 percent stake in the Boqueron field in eastern Venezuela and its 100 percent stake in the Dessarrollo Zulia Occidental, known by its initials DZO and located in Venezuela's west. Following the sale, BP said it would continue with two non-operated exploration and production projects in Venezuela. BP also continues in negotiations with the Venezuelan government for an offshore natural gas block in the OPEC nation's Deltana region.