WSJ: BP Canada Looking To Sell Natural-Gas Liquids Business

   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.