BP Rises in London Trading After Agreement To Sell Oil and Gas Fields in US, Canada, Egypt

BP Plc rose in London trading after agreeing to sell oil and gas fields in the U.S., Canada and Egypt to Apache Corp. for $7 billion, raising cash to meet the costs of the Gulf of Mexico spill.

Photo: BP Rises in London Trading After Agreement To Sell Oil and Gas Fields in US, Canada, Egypt

BP Rises in London Trading After Agreement To Sell Oil and Gas Fields in US, Canada, Egypt

Apache will buy BP’s Permian Basin holdings in Texas and southeast New Mexico and gas properties in western Canada, London-based BP said yesterday after the close of trading. BP also agreed to sell exploration concessions in Egypt, Bloomberg reports.

BP plans to use the proceeds of the asset sale to Apache to help pay costs stemming from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Separately, Apache said it will offer 21 million shares of common stock and $1.1 billion of mandatory convertible preferred stock, which will consist of 22 million depositary shares.

Each depositary share represents 1/20th interest in a share of Apache's mandatory convertible preferred stock, Series D, with an initial liquidation preference of $1,000 per share, equivalent to $50 liquidation preference per depositary share.

Apache released its earnings after the market closed Tuesday. Its shares rose $2.84, or 3.3 percent, to close at $88.28 Tuesday but fell 2.3 percent in after-hours trading, according to BusinessWeek.