Arco deal boosts BP Amoco's China hopes

01 April 1999 16:54  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (CNI)-- BP Amoco Chemicals said Thursday its project presence in China could be given more weight through the $26.8bn (Euro25bn) acquisition of US firm Atlantic Richfield Company (Arco) in a deal announced earlier in the day.

The company believes that Arco’s share in a refinery at Zhenhai, China, 160 km south of Shanghai, will boost its presence and add weight to negotiation. But Sir John Browne, BP Amoco's chief executive officer, said that Arco’s "deep relationship with China, goes over and above the concept of value".

BP Amoco Chemicals has been seeking to develop its Jinshan cracker project with Shanghai Petrochemical but is resigned to a delay of a couple of years or so. Bryan Sanderson, head of chemicals, said the delay is "with mutual agreement of our partners, with whom we have an excellent relationship."

Also in the Far East, there could be considerable synergies from the Arco deal for BP Amoco Chemical’s Indonesian investments, centred around the PT Peni joint venture. Arco has extensive gas fields in the Indonesian sea.

By: Simon Robinson
+44 20 8652 3214

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