BP in deal to sell $7bn of assets
BP has sealed a deal to sell $7bn (£4.5bn) of assets in the United States, Canada and Egypt to Apache Corporation.
The company will sell its Permian Basin operations in Texas and south-east New Mexico and its Western Canadian upstream gas assets.
It will also offload its Western Desert business concessions and East Badr El-din exploration concession in Egypt.
BP said the sales are part of its bid to raise $10bn by selling non-core assets to cover billions of dollars in claims made in connection with the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said: “Over the last two months the board has considered BP’s options for generating the cash necessary to meet the obligations likely to arise from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
“The board believes that there are opportunities to divest assets which are strategically more valuable to other parties than they are to BP.”
Apache is due to pay BP a cash deposit of $5bn on 30 July. The payments will include $3.25bn for Canada, $1.5bn for Permian and $0.25bn for Egypt.