Will BP Sell its Interest in Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay to the Chinese National Petroleum Corp?

June 9, 2010 - Today it was announced that over 6000 lawsuits have been filed against BP.  Concerns are being raised as to whether BP will survive. 

While BP last year had $27 billion in cash flow from operations and paid out $10.5 billion in dividends, it’s a real unknown as what the financial costs to BP will be from the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.  The company has spent $1 billion so far trying to stop the oil and for cleanup.  The total cost will be in the tens of billions and that’s without the big unknown, punitive damages.

To fund the costs of the cleanup and all the litigation, BP may have to sell some of its crown jewels, and these could include its 26 percent in Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay oil field.  If a sale happens, it’s likely that China’s China National Petroleum Corp. would be a potential buyer. This wouldn’t play out well in the U.S. Congress.