BP sells more assets to plug leak
Aug 4 2010 by Iain Laing, The Journal
OIL giant BP has raised more cash to meet the huge cost of the Gulf of Mexico spill after agreeing the £1.2bn sale of its Colombian oil and gas exploration business.
The deal will bring the funds raised by disposals to almost £5.6bn so far after it sold assets in the US, Canada and Egypt to US firm Apache two weeks ago.
BP is targeting £18.8bn in sales after it last week revealed the spill had cost it £20.2bn so far.
The buyer of BP’s Colombian assets is a consortium between Ecopetrol, the country’s national oil company, and Canada’s Talisman.
The sales represent the majority of BP’s interests in the country, where it has had a presence for more than 20 years.
BP’s outgoing chief executive Tony Hayward said: “It now makes sense for the assets to go to owners more willing than BP to invest in their future development.”
The oil company is also looking to dispose of production assets in Vietnam and Pakistan to fund the Gulf clean-up.
The latest estimates from the US Government suggest 4.1 million barrels of oil has escaped into the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank on April 20.
BP is about to launch efforts to plug the well in a “static kill“ operation which will involve pumping mud and cement into the well in a bid to force the oil back into the reservoir after delays caused by a hydraulic leak on Monday.
