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* Follows acquisition of U.S. Permian shale assets
* New LNG from Africa, U.S., Indonesia next decade
By Florence Tan
SINGAPORE, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Oil major BP plans tosell more U.S. crude to Asia as its shale oil production grows,seeking to capitalise on growth in the world's key demandregion.
The strategy, outlined in a Reuters interview with companyexecutives, follows BP's move to acquire giant miner BHP'sassets in the United States' prolific Permian shalebasin last year, expected to give its portfolio a boost inlight-sweet crude production.
"This (Asia) is a key growth region" for energy demand, saidSharon Weintraub, BP's chief executive officer of supply andtrading for the eastern hemisphere. She didn't specify BP'sgrowth targets for Asia sales.
"We recently bought BHP's assets in our U.S. business so wehave a greater amount of Permian crude coming to market over thenext few years in terms of our equity portfolio," Weintraubsaid.
Zoe Anderson, head of analytics at the supply and trading,eastern hemisphere business, said, "The idea is, yes, we want tosend (U.S. crude) supply here (Asia)."
BP has been actively shipping U.S. crude to Asia, havingsold cargoes to Japan, Australia, Thailand and Vietnam as itjostles for business in the world's fastest-growing market withother giant producers and traders like Occidental,Trafigura, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp,Chevron and Aramco Trading Co.
BP ships a variety of light crudes to Asia, such as WestTexas Intermediate (WTI) Midland and Eagle Ford, and medium-sourgrades Mars and Thunder Horse.
More U.S. crude is being processed by refineries acrossAsia. It's replacing falling regional low-sulphur crudeproduction, and some of the world's top crude oil importers,like South Korea and India, are expanding imports this year toreplace sanctions-hit Iranian oil.
Sanctions on Venezuela, as well as Iran, have kept crudesupplies in Asia snug, supporting Brent at $60 a barrel.But new supplies of refined products, liquefied natural gas(LNG) and petrochemicals have hit the market just as tradetensions between the United States and China dent demand,weighing on prices this year.
"With a lack of confidence affecting things like trade flowsthat's going to extend downside risks in the short run till wesee some resolution, which is still unclear when that's going tohappen," Weintraub said.
BP is also expecting new LNG supplies from Indonesia, Africaand the United States to come online in early next decade,Weintraub said, a period where some analysts expect the marketto tighten.
These supplies include BP's share of production in theGreater Tortue development offshore Senegal and Mauritania,Venture Global's Calcasieu Pass project in the United States,and Indonesia's Tangguh phase 3 expansion.
"LNG is a cyclical market and it happens to be on the weakerside today, and we do expect demand to potentially right-sizeitself," Weintraub said.
Longer term, Asia also features in BP's plans to cope with agradual global shift away from oil and into cleaner energysources.
BP said last month it would build a network ofelectric-vehicle charging hubs in China with Didi Chuxing, thecountry's biggest ride-hailing company, in a bet on the world'slargest market for such cars.
(Reporting by Florence Tan and Gavin MaguireEditing by Kenneth Maxwell)
