BP has agreed to sell all Alaska operations and interests to Hilcorp Energy for $5.6 billion. BP’s entire upstream and midstream business in the state was included in the deal, including BP Exploration (Alaska) and BP Pipeline’s (Alaska) interest in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS).
The Liberty offshore oil field, the Milne Point oil field, the Point Thomson gas and condensate field, and Prudhoe Bay, the largest oil field in North America, were all part of the sale.
Anchorage-based Hilcorp Alaska, a subsidiary of Houston’s Hilcorp Energy, already operates at Milne Point. The field saw production reach 36,000 B/D in April for the first time since May 2008. The company expects to reach 40,000 B/D by the end of 2020.
Plans for the deal were first announced in August 2019. The transaction is expected to close in 2020 pending regulatory approval.
The sale follows BP’s divestment of its global petrochemicals business to INEOS for $5 billion in late June. The company said the sale will further strengthen its balance sheet and help fulfill its target for agreed divestments a year earlier than originally scheduled.
BP also said in early June it would cut 10,000 jobs—or approximately 14% of its workforce—in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and as part of the company’s plan to shift to renewable energy and reduce its carbon footprint to net zero by 2050.
BP Alaska currently employs some 1,600 staff and supports around 8,000 jobs in Alaska.