BP to take $750 million hit over Angola exploration charge

UK oil major BP will take a $750 million hit in its second quarter 2017 results over unsuccessful exploration efforts offshore Angola. 

The oil company informed in an update on Thursday that, as part of the ongoing portfolio evaluation, it had decided to relinquish its 50% interest in Block 24/11 offshore southern Angola.

Katambi, a gas discovery made in the block in 2014, has not been determined to be commercial, BP explained.

As a result of this and other exploration write-offs in Angola, BP said it expects to include in its second quarter 2017 results a non-cash exploration write-off in Angola of around $750 million, which will not attract tax relief.

The company emphasized that this will not impact cash flow as part of re-balancing BP.

Bernard Looney, BP’s Upstream chief executive commented: “We are making disciplined choices throughout our business, including in exploration, and pursuing only opportunities that will deliver clear value for our shareholders. Equally important to this disciplined, value-over-volume strategy, we are choosing not to pursue activities that we don’t think will deliver maximum value for our shareholders.”