BP (NYSE:BP) Venezuela Assets Not Officially For Sale Yet

About a week ago BP (NYSE:BP) let Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) Vice President Eulogio del Pino know it was interested in selling its stakes in the Boqueron and Petroperija oil fields and the heavy oil-upgrading project of Petromonagas.

This is part of the initiative by BP to raise up to $30 billion to help pay the costs related to the Macondo oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Evidently Rafael Ramirez, president of PDVSA, the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, but also the oil and energy minister of Venezuela, wants the assets badly, and noted BP hasn't officially requested permission to sell the Venezuelan assets.

Authorization is needed, and it seems that authorization must come from Ramirez.

BP wants to sell the assets to its Russian joint-venture partner, TNK-BP.

Strategically that's not a bad move, as Venezuela would be more apt to sell to a Russian partner than possibly any other partner.

The three projects account for the production of about 130,000 barrels a day.