Legislators call for attention to rumored BP sale

Rumors of a possible sale of BP's North Slope assets have some Alaska politicians nervous. Although BP and any potential buyers have yet to comment or even confirm news reports that have been trickling out this week, House Democrats on Friday asked House Speaker Mike Chenault to hold hearings on the deal as soon as possible.

A spokeswoman for Chenault said he had not yet received any letter and wouldn't be able to comment until he did.

But the House Democrats would like to move ahead with hearings anyway, perhaps even before BP announces any sale, if it ever does.

Rep. Chris Tuck, an Anchorage Democrat and member of the House Resources Committee, says there are many things lawmakers would like to stay on top of in the event of a sale by BP. News reports have the deal coming together so fast that lawmakers don't want it to get away from them, he said.

"There are myriad questions that we have that need to be answered," Tuck said. "Maybe we won't be able to get those answers ... but we would hope that by bringing people to the table and fostering these discussions we'll be better prepared to deal with it."

The Democrats are concerned about what effect a sale of assets by the state's largest oil and gas producer would have on jobs, on production and exploration, and on the upkeep of the North Slope's aging pipelines and production facilities.

There's also a question about the gas line and whether the buzz over a possible sale by one of the backers of one of the proposed projects will dampen interest during the two open seasons that are underway to gauge interest from potential customers.

Some news reports have indicated Exxon Mobil Corp. might be interested in acquiring some of BP's assets, which would create an anti-trust issue similar to the one that arose when BP merged with ARCO Alaska Inc., then the other big North Slope operator, in 1999.

A press release put out by the House Democratic Caucus Friday afternoon cited the "haste with which the deal is advancing as grounds for immediate action by the Legislature."

But the deal, if there is one, remains elusive. On Sunday, the Times of London and the New York Times ran short pieces citing unnamed people allegedly in the know that BP was talking with Houston-based Apache Corp. to sell undisclosed assets in Alaska for $10 billion. BP has been trying to raise billions of dollars to pay for costs associated with the Gulf of Mexico spill, and has set aside $20 billion in an oil spill response fund at the request of President Barack Obama.

On Thursday, Bloomberg upped the speculation with reports that on the table was half of BP's Prudhoe Bay stake and the potential buyer was still Apache. The business wire service said a deal could be announced as soon as Monday and that the companies were trying to conclude an arrangement by June 27 when BP's next earnings report comes out.

Complicating the rumor mill is the notion that under an agreement governing operations in Prudhoe Bay, other North Slope owners have first right of refusal over BP's assets, meaning they would get a chance to buy them before Apache. Those companies would include Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Chevron and Koch Industries, Alaska officials say.

Exxon is the only company that has been mentioned in the speculative news reports about possible interest in BP's Slope holdings.

Lawmakers aren't the only ones who are getting hyped up over a possible sale. On Monday, BP Alaska President John Minge sent out an e-mail -- now being circulated on the Internet -- to employees acknowledging that the last few months since the Deepwater Horizon spill have been difficult enough, and now the sale talk on top of it has added an extra layer of distraction.

"I recognize that this is a distraction, and my biggest concern is that this somehow gets in the way of our delivery of great performance through safe and reliable operations," Minge wrote.

"This is not the first speculation we've seen in the last couple months and it probably will not be the last," he wrote in the e-mail addressed to "Team Alaska." "The best thing we can do with speculation is to put it to the side -- let's focus on the things we can control -- like safely operating 70 percent of Alaska's oil production."