BP to sell stake in North Sea

LONDON - Agence France-Presse

British oil giant BP said yesterday that it had agreed to sell its 50-percent stake in a North Sea gas field to energy firm SSE as part of its divestment plans.

“BP announced today that ... it has agreed to sell its interest in the Sean gas field in the U.K. North Sea to SSE plc for $288 million in cash,” it said in a statement, adding it will complete the deal in the first half of 2013.

Sean is a gas field in the southern North Sea and is operated by Anglo-Dutch rival Shell. BP’s current net BP production from Sean is around 18,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

The latest disposal comes as BP seeks to sell $38 billion worth of assets by the end of 2013 to help pay for cleaning up and for compensation after the U.S. Gulf oil spill disaster.