Providents Review of Strategic Alternatives for its Interests in BreitBurn Entities

Providents Review of Strategic Alternatives for its Interests in BreitBurn Entities

BreitBurn Energy Partners L.P has recently reported that that members of its senior management, in their individual capacity, together with Metalmark Capital Partners and Greenhill Capital Partners, have entered into a purchase and sale agreement with Provident Energy Trust (“Provident”) to acquire Provident’s indirect ownership of a 96.017% interest in BreitBurn Energy Company LP (“BEC”). BEC is a separate U.S. subsidiary of Provident, whose assets consist primarily of producing and non-producing crude oil reserves located in Los Angeles, Orange and Santa Barbara counties in California. The Partnership’s Co-CEOs, Randall H. Breitenbach and Halbert S. Washburn, indirectly own the remaining interest in BEC.

Randy Breitenbach, BreitBurn’s Co-CEO, said: “We are pleased that members of our management team have been able to purchase the BEC assets from Provident. Members of our management team have managed these properties since before the IPO of the Partnership in 2006 and by acquiring Provident’s interests, we expect to be able to ensure that there will be no immediate change to the relationship between the Partnership and BEC, and therefore no negative impact on the Partnership’s near term financial results.”

In connection with this transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in mid-August, the Partnership expects to enter into new Administrative Services and Omnibus Agreements with BEC. The Partnership previously announced on June 17, 2008, that it had acquired all of Provident’s limited partner and indirect general partner interests in the Partnership. The interests in BEC were excluded from that transaction. Both transactions resulted from Provident’s decision to pursue a potential sale of its BreitBurn interests, which was driven primarily by the Canadian Federal Government’s resolution in October 2006 to impose growth restrictions on Canadian energy trusts and, effective 2011, implement a tax on income trust distributions.

BBEP is a publicly traded independent oil and gas limited partnership focused on the acquisition, exploitation and development of oil and gas properties. These producing and non-producing crude oil and natural gas reserves are located in the Antrim Shale in Michigan, the Los Angeles Basin in California, the Wind River and Big Horn Basins in central Wyoming, the Sunniland Trend in Florida, the New Albany Shale in Indiana and Kentucky, and the Permian Basin in West Texas.

Metalmark Capital Partners is a leading private equity firm whose principals have a long track record of successful investing in a wide range of industries, including their core areas of expertise – energy, natural resources, industrials and healthcare. The firm was founded to manage the Metalmark Capital private equity funds and the Morgan Stanley Capital Partners private equity funds. Metalmark Capital Partners recently became an investment center of Citi Alternative Investments

Contact:

BreitBurn Energy Partners L.P. James G. Jackson, 213-225-5900 ext. 273 Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer or Ruder Finn/West

Pierre Hirsch, 415-692-3060

Source: BreitBurn Energy Partners L.P.

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