LONDON — BP said Tuesday it plans to sell half of its refining capacity in the United States while expanding in faster growing economies, and that it would resume paying a dividend for the first time since the rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico last year. þþThe chief executive Bob Dudley has been revamping the British oil giant, eager to leave behind the disaster in the Gulf by again focusing BP on growing its business and regaining investors’ trust. The change would make BP “smaller,” “safer” and “more agile,” Mr. Dudley said at BP’s London headquarters. þþImproving BP’s safety record remains his priority, he said, but BP also wants to double its exploration spending by investing in projects in developing economies like Brazil, Libya and Jordan. At the same time, BP will be seeking buyers for two of its refineries in the United States, one in Texas City, Texas, and the other in Carson, California, which no longer pay off for BP financially. The company expects to get more than $4.4 billion for them. þþ“It’s a relief that they want to sell them,” said Christine Tiscareno, an analyst at Standard & Poor’s in London. “Those refineries were built a long time ago. They have to be redone constantly. This is expensive.” þþBP plans to increase its total investments by about $2 billion to $20 billion next year. A total of 32 projects, including in Alaska, Canada, the Gulf of Mexico and Russia, are planned for the next six years with a potential to contribute about one million barrels a day in production, the company said. þþ“2011 will be a year of recovery and consolidation,” Mr. Dudley said. “But it will also be a year in which we have the opportunity to reset the company, adjusting the shape of our business, and focus on growing value for shareholders.” þþBP also said it would pay a dividend of 7 cents a share for the fourth quarter of last year. Earnings for the period rose 30 percent to $5.6 billion from $4.3 billion a year earlier, helped by higher oil prices. BP had suspended its dividend payments, which were most recently 14 cents a share, following the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf. The BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg called the dividend level “prudent.” þþBP’s share price has not returned to its pre-explosion level, but it has risen 60 percent from the low it sank to last July. The shares dropped in London on Tuesday after BP said it expected production to decline this year as a result of asset sales. þþExxon Mobil, the largest American oil company, said Monday its profit in the fourth quarter rose 53 percent to $9.25 billion, the highest for a quarter in more than two years. It cited increased energy demand from a recovering global economy. Chevron and ConocoPhillips have also reported higher earnings for the quarter. þþBP set aside an additional $1 billion in the fourth quarter for expenses related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, bringing the total charge to almost $41 billion. BP said it does not expect to be able to give an exact figure for the total costs for a while. A plan to sell $30 billion in assets by the end of 2011 to help pay for costs related to the oil spill was “on track,” BP said. þþTexas City, BP’s largest refinery in the United States, was the site of an explosion in 2005 that left 15 dead and 170 others injured. The U.S. government imposed a record $50.6 million fine on the company last August. þþIt and Carson, which supplies about a quarter of Los Angeles’s gasoline, account for about 28 percent of BP’s current total refining capability. BP said it plans to sell them before the end of 2012. BP plans to continue to invest in its other U.S. refinery operations in Cherry Point, Washington; Whiting, Indiana and Toledo, Ohio. þþJason Kenney, an analyst at ING in London, said PetroChina or other national oil companies might be interested in the assets. PetroChina agreed on Monday to buy half of Ineos Group’s European oil-refining operation for $1.02 billion. þþMr. Dudley also said that he plans to forge more alliances with national oil companies to ensure a presence in key oil and gas basins. In his first major deal since the Gulf of Mexico accident, Mr. Dudley agreed in January to a share swap with Russia’s Rosneft to form a partnership to explore the Arctic. þþBut the $16 billion deal almost immediately faced opposition from BP’s partners in its existing joint venture in Russia, TNK-BP, who argued that the Rosneft deal would violate their own agreement. þþTNK-BP’s Russian shareholders asked for an injunction at a London court to stop BP’s deal with Rosneft. The court ruled Tuesday that the case would go to an arbitral tribunal that is to settle the matter by Feb. 25. BP said it welcomed the court’s decision. þþMr. Dudley said Tuesday he was confident that the disagreement could be resolved, possibly by inviting TNK-BP to join the Rosneft deal. “There may be some way for them to be involved with this and we wouldn’t be opposed to it,” he said. “I continue to believe this is a commercial matter that will be resolved in a business way.” þþTo improve BP’s safety record, Mr. Dudley last year set up a new division to monitor safety, linked bonuses to risk management and fired the head of exploration and production. BP recently suspended some operations in Alaska and the North Sea after the projects failed to meet the new safety standards, Mr. Dudley said on Tuesday, without giving further details. þþ
Source: NY Times
