By Guy Chazan
Of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
BP Plc (BP, BP.LN) said it has put its Canadian natural gas
liquids business up for sale, part of efforts to raise up to $30
billion to pay for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The assets include processing facilities that strip out natural
gas liquids like propane and butane from gas after it's extracted
from the ground. Both NGL processing and storage facilities are on
the block. A person familiar with the matter said the assets, which
have been on sale since October, have already attracted offers.
BP has been selling assets for months in a drive to meet the
estimated $40 billion bill for the Gulf oil spill, and has already
raised more than $21 billion.
This will not be the first time it has sold parts of its
Canadian business. In July, it agreed to sell oil and gas assets in
western Canada, the Permian Basin in Texas and Egypt's Western
Desert to U.S. independent Apache Corp for $7 billion.
Earlier this week it agreed to sell oil fields in Pakistan to
United Energy Group for $775 million. And late last month it sold
its 60% stake in Pan American Energy LLC, an Argentina-based oil
and gas producer, for $7 billion. The company has also indicated it
is looking for buyers for some of its more mature natural gas
fields in the North Sea, which are thought to be worth about $1
billion.