UPDATE: BP Sells Venezuela, Vietnam Assets To TNK-BP For $1.8 Billion

BP PLC (BP) said Monday it agreed to sell assets in Venezuela and Vietnam to its Russian joint venture TNK-BP Ltd. for $1.8 billion, as the U.K. oil major intensifies its divestiture program to pay for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

BP plans to sell around $30 billion of oil and gas assets to help cover the costs of an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April. It has already sold assets in the U.S., Egypt and Colombia.

"Today's agreement is further evidence of the rapid progress BP is making towards the divestment target we set out in July," said BP's Chief Executive Bob Dudley in a news release.

The deal with TNK-BP brings BP's total assets sale in the wake of Macondo to $11.4 billion. The company already announced agreements to sell assets in Egypt, Canada and the U.S. to Apache Corp. (APA) for $7 billion and to sell its Colombian business for $1.9 billion to Talisman Energy Inc. (TLM) and Ecopetrol SA (ECOPETROL.BO). BP has also undertaken smaller deals to unload assets in Malaysia and the U.S.

The deal announced Monday will give TNK-BP, which is owned on a parity basis by BP and a group of Russian businessmen, a long awaited boost in its efforts to expand outside of Russia, the company's CEO Mikhail Fridman said. TNK-BP is already part of a Russian joint venture holding a 40% stake in Venezuela's Junin-6 block in the eastern Orinoco regional in partnership with state company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA. The company also has operations in Ukraine, and is seeking to bid for projects in Iraq.

TNK-BP will pay a deposit of $1 billion by Oct. 29, with final payment due when the deal will be concluded in the first half of 2011.

In Venezuela, TNK-BP will acquire a 16.7% stake in PetroMonagas SA, an extra heavy oil producer; a 40% stake in Petroperija SA, which operates the DZO field; and a 26.7% stake in Boqueron SA, TNK-BP said in a statement.

The Venezuelan assets, which are operated as joint ventures with state company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA, have a combined capacity of 25,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.

In Vietnam, TNK-BP will buy from BP a 35% stake in the upstream offshore gas production Block 06-1, containing the Lan Tay and Lan Do gas condensate fields; a 32.7% stake in the Nam Con Son pipeline and terminal; and a 33.3% stake in the Phu My 3 power plant.

In total, the Vietnamese assets have a production capacity of 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day and assets form an integrated gas and power chain.

TNK-BP said the acquisitions will be financed through TNK-BP's own resources and won't require additional debt.

The Russian oil producer has also stepped up efforts to buy BP assets in Algeria, which BP is selling as part of its divestment plan. But a TNK-BP executive said last week talks have progressed more slowly in Algeria than in Venezuela and Vietnam because the Algerian government only recently gave its approval to allow negotiations to proceed.

-By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Dow Jones Newswires; +7 495 232 9197; jacob.pedersen@dowjones.com

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