BP (NYSE:BP) Sells Pakistan Assets to United Energy Group

BP (NYSE:BP), after turning away a bid from the two largest oil and gas companies in Pakistan, announced they have sold the assets to United Energy Group for $775 million.

They continue on with their strategy of divesting of non-core assets in order to raise up to $40 billion to pay for liabilities related to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Shares of BP were trading higher today, with volume exceeding 3-month daily averages. They were at $44.38. up $0.95, or 2.19 percent, as of 2:46 PM EST.

BP (NYSE:BP) Rejects Bid for Pakistan Assets

The bid from Pakistan Petroleum Ltd. (PPL) and Oil & Gas Development Co. (OGDC) for BP's (NYSE:BP) Pakistan assets was informally rejected by the oil giant.

BP had announced in July that it was going to put its Pakistani assets up for sale to raise capital to build up its liability fund related to the Gulf oil spill.

There were apparently other bids on the table, and they were obviously more attractive than the one offered by the two largest exploration companies based in Pakistan.

So far BP has raised approximately $21 billion to pay out liabilities. Their goal is to raise up to $40 billion for that purpose, although it could be slightly lower than that.

BP closed Friday at $43.24, up $0.45, or 1.05 percent.

Pakistan Looking to Monsanto (NYSE:MON) for Cotton Solutions

Struggling with cotton productivity, Pakistan is in negotiations with Monsanto (NYSE:MON) to provide answers for the cotton industry in the country.

In a seminar addressing the issues, areas of interest covered included the "introduction of insect resistance and herbicide tolerance technologies, research collaboration between Monsanto and Pakistan Research Institutes, capacity building of local seed companies and technology fee payment by the Punjab government for any unauthorized spread off Monsanto’s proprietary technologies."

While noting the problems of scarcity of water, disease, insects, and enough seeds to plant aren't unique to Pakistan, they haven't put forth systematic efforst to deal with the problems in the cotton industry, which in their view includes working with a partner like Monsanto.

Per the negotiations, if successful, Pakistan would gain legal access to the technology of Monsanto, giving them access to their pipeline.

Particular products being looked at in the market include Monsanto’s CEMB single-gene and double-gene Bt, single-gene Bt, Chinese fusion gene Bt and double-gene Bt, Monsanto’s double-gene Bt (BG II), Roundup Ready and Roundup Ready (RR) Flex and BG II x BR Flex Stack.

Pakistan is also looking to Monsanto to develop a drought resistance cottong variety by 2018.