NYT > Plains Exploration

9:53 a.m. | Updated LONDON - BP agreed on Monday to sell a stake in a group of oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico to the Plains Exploration and Production Company of Houston for about $5.6 billion.

Low prices for consumers. Big profits for bankers. But the gas glut in the United States has meant much pain for gas exploration companies and their investors.

The transactions will create a natural resources titan worth about $60 billion, including debt, and will reunite Freeport with McMoRan, the oil exploration company it spun off in 1994.

Shares of Freeport tumbled more than 13 percent on Wednesday, after the mining concern announced plans to buy two oil and gas explorers, a move that that many investors are rejecting outright.

The conflicts of interest in the Freeport deals look bad even for a sector populated by the likes of Chesapeake Energy, SandRidge Energy and Kinder Morgan, the authors write.

JPMorgan Chase is the sole initial underwriter for a $9.5 billion loan facility to support Freeport-McMoRan's takeovers of two oil and gas explorers, in a move that the firm has made something of a specialty.

For the top executives involved -- but not shareholders so far -- Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold's acquisitions to get into the energy business appear very attractive, the author writes.

The brouhaha over Freeport-McMoran Copper and Gold's recent acquisitions illustrates the sometimes unsatisfying way that corporate law deals with conflicts of interest.

9:53 a.m. | Updated LONDON - BP agreed on Monday to sell a stake in a group of oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico to the Plains Exploration and Production Company of Houston for about $5.6 billion.

9:53 a.m. | Updated LONDON - BP agreed on Monday to sell a stake in a group of oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico to the Plains Exploration and Production Company of Houston for about $5.6 billion....

Low prices for consumers. Big profits for bankers. But the gas glut in the United States has meant much pain for gas exploration companies and their investors....

The transactions will create a natural resources titan worth about $60 billion, including debt, and will reunite Freeport with McMoRan, the oil exploration company it spun off in 1994....

Shares of Freeport tumbled more than 13 percent on Wednesday, after the mining concern announced plans to buy two oil and gas explorers, a move that that many investors are rejecting outright....

The conflicts of interest in the Freeport deals look bad even for a sector populated by the likes of Chesapeake Energy, SandRidge Energy and Kinder Morgan, the authors write....

For the top executives involved -- but not shareholders so far -- Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold's acquisitions to get into the energy business appear very attractive, the author writes....

The brouhaha over Freeport-McMoran Copper and Gold's recent acquisitions illustrates the sometimes unsatisfying way that corporate law deals with conflicts of interest....

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