BP-Sonagol Ink Agreement For Development Of Platina Field

BP plc (NYSE:BP) has inked an agreement with Angola’s Sonangol related to progress of the final investment decision for the development of the Platina field in deepwater Block 18, offshore Angola.

The agreement also entails extension of the production license for the BP-operated Greater Plutonio project on Block 18 to 2032. Per the deal, Sonangol will be able to farm in an interest of 8% in the block. The transaction is subject to government approval.

Previously, BP had operated the PSVM project in Block 31 that commenced operations in 2013, since Platina will be the first new operated development in Angola. The Greater Plutonio project was commissioned in 2007 and this project will be the second phase of development in Block 18.

The Platina field, discovered in 1999, lies in water depth of about 1,300 meters. The field will be developed as a subsea tie-back to the existing Greater Plutonio floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO). The final investment decision for the development is expected in the second quarter of 2019. The company expects to start production in late 2021 or early 2022. Later life production from the Greater Plutonio fields as well as the future output anticipated from Platina will be possible with the production license extension.

Further, two memorandam of understanding (MOUs) have been inked between BP and Sonangol for further access and exploration offshore Angola. It also includes cooperation for planned new products, crude terminal as well as storage facility in Angola.

In another announcement, an associate of BP — BP Trinidad and Tobago (BPTT) — announced that new gas developments, Cassia Compression and Matapal, offshore the Caribbean island nation has been approved. BP anticipates investment of about $1.8 billion in these two projects.

The Cassia Compression project will facilitate BPTT to access and produce low pressure gas reserves from currently-producing fields in the Greater Cassia Area, optimizing recovery from these existing resources.

The project will involve the construction of a new platform, Cassia C. This will mark BPTT’s 16th offshore facility. Gas production from the Greater Cassia Area will be carried to Cassia C for compression before being exported through the adjacent existing Cassia B platform. Cassia C Compression project is anticipated to produce first gas in the third quarter of 2021.

Located 57 kilometer off the south-east coast of Trinidad, Cassia C will have a throughput capacity of 1.2 billion standard cubic feet of gas a day.

The Savannah exploration well will be used by the Matapal project to develop the gas resources discovered by BPTT in 2017. The project will be a three-well subsea tie-back to the existing Juniper platform. The Matapal project, with a production capacity of 400 million standard cubic feet of gas a day, is anticipated to produce first gas in 2022.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Currently, BP carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A few better-ranked players in the same sector are Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. (NYSE:COG) , Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD) and SunCoke Energy, Inc (NYSE:SXC) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Houston, TX-based Cabot is an independent oil and gas exploration company with producing properties mainly in the continental United States. The company delivered an average negative earnings surprise of 5.7% in the last four quarters.

Headquartered in Houston, TX, Enterprise Products Partners is among the leading midstream energy players in North America. It pulled off an average positive earnings surprise of 9.3% in the last four quarters.

SunCoke acquires, owns and operates the coke making and coal mining operations. The company delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 302.6% in the last four quarters.

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