BP Amoco shareholders approve acquisition of ARCO
BP Amoco shareholders “voted conclusively” to approve the company’s acquisition of ARCO at a Sept. 1 meeting in London. In addition, the company said, a majority of 99.3 percent of proxy votes received, 5.9 billion shares, were in favor, with 28 million voted against and 9.7 million abstentions.
BP Amoco said that more than 60 percent of the shares at issue were voted. Shareholders also voted in favor of a split of BP Amoco shares which will have the effect of doubling the shares in issue.
BP Amoco Co-Chairman Peter Sutherland said the voting indicated “overwhelming shareholder support for the ARCO combination.” Noting that “since the beginning of 1994 we have added some $75 million a day to the value of the company,” he said the share split was “designed to bring our share price more into line with our principal competitors in the UK and the U.S. and hopefully to make our shares more attractive to shareholders both here and in the U.S."
BP Amoco chief executive Sir John Browne said: “Today's conclusive endorsement by our shareholders is a crucial step in our progress towards closing the transaction. Our discussions with the various regulatory authorities are also moving constructively ahead and our integration plan is ready to be implemented. All of this gives us great confidence that we can meet our target to complete the deal before the end of the year.”
Western North Slope focus of winter exploration plans
The western North Slope is the focus of winter exploration plans that ARCO Alaska Inc. and BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. have begun discussing with state agencies.
ARCO has told regulators it is looking at four locations within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, as well as locations on state lands north and south of Alpine. The NPR-A locations (see August issue of Petroleum News Alaska) are southwest of Alpine.
BP’s proposed NPR-A locations (see August issue of PNA) are farther west of Alpine than ARCO’s locations, and farther north, lying about midway between Harrison Bay and Teshekpuk Lake.
On state lands, ARCO proposes to drill one well in the Nechelik prospect, north of Alpine, and one in the Nanuk prospect, south of Alpine.
Both ARCO and BP exploration will use a Beaufort Sea ice road skirting the Colville River delta. The ice road will branch at the Nechelik prospect, with one branch running south to Alpine and beyond, while the other crosses Harrison Bay to the mouth of the Kalikpik River and then runs west and south to BP’s prospects.
Valdez oil spill drill
Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. is conducting an oil spill drill Sept. 1-2 at the Valdez marine terminal. Alyeska said the drill, designed to practice oil spill response at the terminal, will meet state and federal requirements for periodic testing of oil spill contingency plans. The scenario for the drill involves an oil spill from a crude oil storage tank and includes both land and water response.
Approximately 300 people will participate in Valdez, with 20 more in the company’s Anchorage emergency operations center.
1.03 million barrels per day
August throughput for the trans-Alaska pipeline totaled 32,016,000 barrels, a daily average of 1.03 million barrels, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. said Sept. 1.
Year-to-date throughput is 256,616,000 barrels, an average of 1.09 million barrels per day. The company said pipeline reliability for August was 100 percent, with a year-to-date reliability of 99.89 percent.
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