BP Quickie -- Asset Sale to Apache -- $7 billion -- but not Alaskan Assets, Yet

Did I just hear that correctly on CNBC at 4:13 p.m., Tuesday, July 20, 2010: BP sold assets to Apache for $7 million? If that's what I heard it's in line with the Bloomberg story over the weekend in which BP was trying to sell half its assets in Prudhoe Bay in Alaska for $10 to $11 billion in an all-cash deal.

Update -- 4:15, July 20, 2010: Yes, that is correct. Turns out that the $7 million figure is correct but for different assets. The assets are mostly North American, but not Alaskan. Rather, the assets are the Permian Basin assets in Texas, the Western sedimentary basin in Canada, and some assets in Egypt.

Apache needs to deliver $5 billion by July 31, 2010. BP needs to raise $7 billion by the end of the month.

How is the after-hour market for APA doing? Apache is holding in there fine: down 88 cents; no big deal.

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Here's the official press release:

Apache Corporation (NYSE, Nasdaq: APA) today announced it has agreed to acquire all of BP's oil and gas operations, acreage and infrastructure in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico and Egypt's Western Desert. Apache also will acquire substantially all of BP's upstream natural gas business in western Alberta and British Columbia. Apache will pay $7 billion for the assets, which include estimated proved reserves of 385 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe).

Comment: This is $ 18.18 per barrel based on estimated proved reserves. Operators in the Bakken (BEXP, WLL, CLR) talk about $14 - $24/bbl to find and produce. Not only do they get the oil, they get the acreage and infrastructure -- pipeline, pumping stations, etc. Seems like a very good deal for Apache.