Aggressive oil hedging enables Plains E&P’s big deepwater play

Plains Exploration & Production will hedge up to 90% of its oil production for the next three years, the Houston-based company says as it reaches a deal to buy $6.1 billion of oil assets in the Gulf of Mexico from BP and Shell

Plains Exploration & Production, a mid-sized independent E&P firm that had previously been known as an onshore US natural gas developer, made a dramatic move into deepwater oil last week by clinching a $6.1 billion deal to acquire assets from BP and Royal Dutch Shell in the Gulf of Mexico. In order to secure financing for the acquisition, the Houston-based firm vowed to hedge up to 90% of its oil production through to 2015, an unusually large coverage ratio for an E&P company.

The hedges were