BP to sell Colombian assets

BP Plc says it has agreed to sell its oil and gas exploration business in Colombia for US$1.9 billion to a consortium of Ecopetrol, Colombia's national oil company, and Talisman of Canada.

The deal announced Tuesday is the latest in BP's plans to sell up to US$30 billion of assets to cover costs related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

It will receive a cash deposit for the Colombian sale, which it expects to complete by the end of the year.

BP last month agreed to sell assets in the United States, Canada and Egypt to Apache Corp for US$7 billion. It also plans to sell assets in Pakistan and Vietnam.

BP last week revealed it has set aside US$32.2 billion to cover spill costs as it posted a US$17 billion second-quarter loss.

Crews hoped to begin pumping mud and perhaps cement down the throat of the blown-out oil well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday in what BP officials said could be the method of attack that finally snuffs the Gulf oil spill.

Probe

Engineers planned to probe the damaged blowout preventer with an oil-like liquid to determine whether it could handle the attempt to stymie the oil.

If the test is successful, they plan to spend Tuesday through Thursday pumping the heavy mud down the well.

Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the government's point man on the spill response, said Tuesday at a news briefing in Houston that crews hoped to begin the testing soon and finish by noon (1700 GMT).

They will then spend several hours analysing the results before launching the latest effort, dubbed the static kill.

BP officials said Monday that the static kill alone - which involves slowly pumping mud down lines running from a ship to the blown-out well a mile (1,500 metres) below - may plug the oil leak. But the company said there's no way to tell until the relief wells that engineers have been digging for three months, are complete.

- AP