BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust

Infobox_Company
company_name = BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust
company_
company_type = Public (nyse|BPT)
company_slogan =
foundation = New York, New York, United States (1989)
location = Headquarters in New York; assets on the Alaska North Slope at the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field
key_people = Marie Trimboli, Assistant Vice President, Bank of New York (trustee)
industry = Oil and natural gas
products = Oil and natural gas; royalty trust
homepage =
The BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust (nyse|BPT) is a United States oil and natural gas royalty trust based in New York, New York. With a market capitalization of US$ 1.6 billion in early 2008, and an average trading volume of 121,000 shares, BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust is the largest conventional oil and gas trust in the United States. Its assets are in the huge Prudhoe Bay Oil Field, the largest oil field in North America, and at the end of 2006 the Trust claimed to have proved reserves of 85.1 million barrels of crude oil.

Standard Oil Company and BP Exploration, both now branches of British Petroleum, set up the trust in 1989. They distribute royalties on a portion of the oil produced from the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field, typically 16% of the first 90,000 barrels of net daily production. In their 2006 Annual Report, the Trust estimated it would continue to make royalty payouts through at least the year 2024. [ [http://www.secinfo.com/dsVS7.u1kd.htm#1stPage Annual Report, form 10-K, on file with the SEC] ]

Royalty trusts typically pay enormous dividends by Wall Street standards, making them popular with investors, particularly during times when the price of oil is high, or other market sectors are performing poorly. Investing advice firm Motley Fool listed the trust in the top four dividend payers of the decade from 1997 to 2007, giving a total return on investment during that time of 1,369%. [ [http://www.fool.com/investing/dividends-income/2007/03/27/the-best-dividend-payers-of-the-past-decade.aspx The best dividend payers of the last decade (Motley Fool)] ] In early 2008, the Trust's quarterly dividend per share was $3.05, which equated to an annual payout of approximately 16%. It pays its dividend quarterly, unlike many of the royalty trusts, which pay monthly. [ [http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=BPT Key statistics, at Yahoo! Finance] ] Unanticipated oilfield mishaps can occasionally cause volatility of the stock price, as happened in August 2006, when BP needed to shut down its operations at Prudhoe Bay to replace 22 miles of corroded lines. The Prudhoe Bay oil field has been developed for 30 years, but its original pipelines were designed to last for only 25 years. [ [http://www.alaskaforum.org/2006%20News%20Stories%20Sorted%20by%20Month/august_2006_news_stories.htm Wall Street Journal article on Prudhoe Bay shutdown: August 2006] ]

References and notes

External links

* [http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=BPT Profile of BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust at Yahoo! Finance]
* [http://www.secinfo.com/dsVS7.u1kd.htm#1stPage Annual Report 10-K on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission]