How Canadian Oil Sands Operations Will Impact BP plc?

BP plc believes cost of Canadian oil sand has fallen due to depreciating Loonie and deflation in the country.

Richard Herbert, Exploration Head at BP plc. said at a conference held in Banff, Alberta that developing cost of oil sands in Canada is dropping quickly, as per Bloomberg. Canada’s oil sands are mixture of sand, water, clay, and bitumen in Alberta.

Oil reserves of Alberta are the third biggest crude reserve all over the globe, after Saudia Arabia and Venezuela. It has approximately 170 billion barrels of oil. Mr. Herbert said that crude oil cost of production in Alberta has decreased by nearly 15% to 20% due to Canadian dollar depreciation and deflation. This happened very first time that the cost have dropped in the last 15 years during that time the costs had soared by threefold. Presently, Canadian currency stands at 76 cents in United States dollar terms, as affirmed by BP stock analysis.

The British oil giant expects that by the year 2035, energy consumption might increase by nearly 41% and oil sand reserve in Alberta can then be utilized to meet the energy demand of the world. Mr. Herbert thinks that however huge savings can be generated from falling costs; they have not reached a price that can boost BP’s oil sand project in Alberta. It looks like that the company is confident that cost will fall further.

Since last year summers, prices of crude oil have dropped by over 50%. Various oil giants including, Total SA, Royal Dutch Shell plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. are reducing their capital spending to maintain themselves failing market conditions. Over 150,000 jobs have been reduced in the last one year. This cut in costs of producing and developing crude oil is going to favor the London oil company.

Like other oil firms, BP was also bearish regarding the oil market. It thinks that prices are not going to recover their momentum in the near term. The falling Asian market chaos and Chinese economy is going to maintain crude at its low.

In BP stock news related to the company, the Azerbaijan Republic State Oil Company and BP plc will endure its job as field operator at Azeri Chirag Gunashli even after the expiration of contract in 2024. The London oil majors was made field operator in the year 1994, when 30 year-long production sharing deal contract was signed by the companies.

Earlier, there had been some issues between the Oil Company and government of Azerbaijan. Although, this deal renewal shows that they have solved the issues. ACG field, which is situated 120 km away from the Azerbaijan coast, contains approximately 5.4 billion barrels of oil. Numerous big oil firms including Exxon Mobil, Hess Corp. and Statoil ASA have taken ownership in the field.