Oil major BP revealed Monday that it has agreed to sell its interest in the Sean gas field to SSE plc for $288 million.
The company said in a statement that the deal is part of a broader program which it has embarked on to dispose of non-core assets.
"The divestment of BP's interest in the non-core, non-operated Sean field is consistent with our strategy of focusing on high value assets with long term growth potential," BP North Sea's regional president Trevor Garlick said in the statement.
BP aims to complete the deal in the first half of 2013. The company said that the sale is subject to regulatory approval.
Shell-operated Sean is a gas field in the Southern North Sea; BP's share of production from the field is equivalent to 18,000 barrels of oil per day.
BP's strategy to divest its non-core assets includes the sale of the Wytch Farm oil field in Dorset and the sale of its non-operated stakes in the Draugen, Alba and Britannia fields. BP also recently announced the sale of Harding, Maclure, Braes and Devenick to TAQA. The total value of those assets sold, including the sale of Sean, is around $3.1 billion.
BP's annual production from the North Sea - in the UK and Norway - averages around 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The company has over three billion barrels of estimated of proven and contingent resource available in the region.
