BP share price: Portfolio of US shale assets attracts bidders

BP’s (LON:BP) sale of a portfolio of US onshore shale assets worth a combined $7 billion is progressing, Bloomberg has revealed. The newswire reports that the blue-chip oil giant is paring its US onshore business as it looks to pay down debt in the wake of its $10.5-billion purchase of BHP’s (LON:BHP) US shale fields last year.

BP’s share price has been steady in London this Monday, having added 0.66 percent to 536.50p as of 14:46 GMT. The stock is marginally outperforming the broader UK market, with the benchmark FTSE 100 index currently standing 0.51 percent higher at 7,142.66 points. The group’s shares have added more than 15 percent to their value over the past year, as compared with about a one-percent gain in the Footsie.

Sale of US shale assets progressing

Bloomberg reported on Friday night that according to people with knowledge of the matter, BP had received interest from energy producers Hilcorp Energy Co and Enduring Resources in its operations in Colorado’s San Juan Basin, valued at about $2 billion. The sources further told the newswire that Warburg Pincus was among groups interested in BP’s assets in the Anadarko and Arkoma Basins in Oklahoma, while KKR & Co was also looking at multiple assets BP is shopping.

Bloomberg notes that BP’s chief financial officer Brian Gilvary has said that the oil major plans to sell $10 billion worth of assets over the next two years.

Analysts on blue-chip oil major

Royal Bank of Canada, which rates BP as a ‘buy,’ set a price target on the shares of 625p last month, while HSBC, which is also bullish on the group with a ‘buy’ rating, boosted its valuation on the shares from 630p to 660p. According to MarketBeat, the blue-chip oil company currently has a consensus ‘buy’ rating and an average price target of 652.35p.

As of 15:28 GMT, Monday, 04 March, BP plc share price is 536.50p.