Speculation is mounting that BP is looking for a white knight investor as the oil company, the shares of which have more than halved since the start of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, faces the prospect of a hostile takeover from a rival oil group.
Libya’s state-owned oil group has expressed its interest in buying a stake in the embattled oil group and there are rumours that management has approached several sovereign wealth funds.
BP has interests in offshore gas and oil fields as well as a stake in an export oil pipeline which goes to Turkey. The company is looking to raise $10-billion through a series of disposals but its Caspian assets have not yet been among those earmarked for sale.
Discussion among traders of BP’s options has helped offset reports that the British government has become increasingly concerned that the company could collapse.
A report in the Times of London said the department for business and the treasury are examining the potential impact of a takeover of BP, once the United Kingdom’s biggest company, on British interests domestically and around the world.
As well as employing more than 10 000 people in the UK and providing a crucial dividend stream to pension funds, BP owns key domestic infrastructure, including the Forties Pipeline System that links up oil and gas fields in the North Sea.
Billions of pounds have been wiped from the value of BP’s shares since the Deepwater Horizon disaster, making the company vulnerable to a takeover. The environmental damage has now affected all the US states along the Gulf of Mexico, with “tar balls” reportedly discovered along the Texas shore.
Samples of the tar are currently being tested to determine whether the oil came from the Deepwater Horizon spill.
Earlier this week BP said that the spill has so far cost it $3,12-billion. —