BP, Apache talks hit snags on Prudhoe

According to an unnamed insider speaking to Bloomberg's BusinessWeek, negotiations between BP Plc and Apache Corp. hit a snag over the weekend. The companies are working out a deal for Apache to buy half of BP's share of Prudhoe Bay, rumored to be all-cash and valued at between $10 billion and $11 billion. The sticking points, the insider says, come from disagreement over the valuation of the assets, as well as concerns over current and future legal liability. BusinessWeek reminds us, however, that the snags don't necessarily mean the deal's over; as final points are worked out in such transactions, they often stop and start. The companies and their advisers will likely reach out to each other before the deal lapses. Read more, here.

In other BP news, Reuters (via Canada's Globe and Mail) reports that late Sunday, the federal government released a letter sent to BP  from retired U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen (the federal point-man). Allen referred to "undetermined anomalies at the well head,” which reportedly include undetermined seepage from the seabed and anomalous pressure readings. Read much more, here. Agence France-Presse (via the Calgary Herald) reports in greater detail about the pressure anomalies, saying that tests of the closed well didn't result in pressure readings as high as expected. Read much more, here.