BP plc’s decision to invest billions in India’s offshore, just one month after a billion-plus tie-up with a Russian producer, doesn’t mean the oil major is abandoning the United States, CEO Bob Dudley said last week.

Questions about BP’s future in North America, where it is the biggest natural gas marketer and one of the top producers, came after the London-based major agreed to invest $7.2 billion into Reliance Industries Ltd., India’s largest energy producer and flagship of the country’s largest private-sector enterprise.

The deal with Reliance, which is said to be the largest ever in India’s private sector, would give BP access to explore India’s deepwater and allow the oil major to invest in the country’s emerging onshore gas pipeline infrastructure. The transaction follows a $7.8 billion transaction announced in January with Russia’s OAO Rosneft to swap stock and jointly explore Russia’s Arctic region (see NGI, Jan. 17).

The move also signals BP’s intentions to follow a strategy that mirrors its latest internal predictions, issued last month, which suggest that global energy use will rise by almost 40% by 2030, led by demand from four major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India and China — also referred to as “BRICs” (see NGI, Jan. 24).

“This partnership will help unlock the huge potential of India’s vast but under-explored acreages,” said Mukesh Ambani, who helms Reliance. BP was chosen because it is “one of the finest deepwater exploration companies in the world” and its technical expertise will accelerate exploration, he added.

Ambani and Dudley held a signing ceremony in London to announce the transaction. The investment, said BP’s chief, doesn’t signal BP’s withdrawal from the United States.

“We’re fully committed to the U.S.,” Dudley told reporters. “This is part of the shift in energy demand across the globe.” BP still has $8 billion of assets to sell after $22 billion of divestitures following the Macondo well blowout last year in the Gulf of Mexico, he said. “India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world,” said Dudley. “By allying ourselves with Reliance, we will access the most prolific gas basin in India and secure a place in the fast-growing Indian gas markets, creating a genuinely distinctive BP position.”

Under terms of the agreement BP would acquire a 30% stake in 23 blocks offshore India, as well as form a joint venture with Reliance to market natural gas. The offshore blocks together span an area of 270,000 square kilometers, which is similar in scale to the North Sea. Nineteen of the blocks lie off India’s eastern coast in water between 400 meters and 3,000 meters deep. Together they produce about 1.8 Bcf/d, which is more than 40% of India’s total gas output. Reliance would continue to act as operator.

In addition to offshore access the transaction would give BP the right to help develop gas pipeline infrastructure in India. Future performance payments and investment could increase the size of the transaction to $20 billion, according to BP.

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