BP restarts sale of Alaska assets

BP has revived the sale of its Alaskan assets after failing to offload them to US oil and gas company Apache in July, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

Citing banking sources, the newspaper said Houston-based Apache is still seen as a buyer. It said Occidental Petroleum Corp, a US group, is also a potential suitor.

The FT said it is not known whether the British oil giant would be willing to sell its entire 26 percent stake in the huge Prudhoe Bay oilfield, which includes the right to operate it.

BP is also in talks to sell assets in Vietnam and Venezuela as part of a US$30 billion ($41 billion) asset sales program to help pay for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The company said on Friday the cost of dealing with the spill had risen to US$8 billion.

- Reuters