Cameron’s US trip hampered by anger at BP
DAVID Cameron yesterday asked Britain’s top civil servant to re-examine the circumstances surrounding the early release of the Lockerbie bomber, but insisted BP had not influenced the decision.
Amid fears that his first Prime Ministerial visit to Washington is being overshadowed by US resentment against the oil major, Cameron tried to draw a line under the issue by asking cabinet secretary Gus O’Donnell to reopen the files concerning the release. But he dismissed calls for a full blown inquiry.
BP is suffering a nationalistic backlash in the US, after suggestions it lobbied the government to release Abdelbaset al-Megrahi to help smooth a Libyan deal resurfaced, exacerbating an already febrile environment after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
“I don’t need an inquiry to tell me what I already know, which is it was a bad decision to release him….we should try and separate that, frankly, from the issue of BP and the oil spill, said Cameron”
The oil major yesterday announced plans to raise an estimated $8.7bn (£5.7bn) from asset sales, bringing the embattled oil group close to its initial target of raising $10bn from disposals to help offset costs linked to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The bulk of the cash comes from its deal with Apache to sell off $7bn worth of upstream assets in Egypt, Canada and the US to the Houston based oil group. BP also notified Vietnamese and Pakistani government officials yesterday of plans to divest assets in both countries worth $1.7bn. In total, the $8.7bn assets represent two per cent of BP’s reserves.