LONDON: BP said Tuesday that it will sell most of its Pakistan assets to Britain-based firm United Energy Group, as part of sales to pay for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

“BP announced today that it has entered into an agreement to sell almost all of its exploration and production assets in Pakistan to United Energy Group Limited (UEG),” it said in a statement.

“UEG will pay BP a total of 775 million dollars (574 million euros) in cash for these assets which consist of nine producing and exploration blocks in Sindh province and four offshore exploration blocks in the Arabian Sea.” The deal, expected to be completed in the first half of next year, is part of BP's ongoing divestment plan to pay for the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.

“The sale of these interests in Pakistan is part of BP's plan, announced in July 2010, to divest up to 30 billion dollars of assets by the end of 2011,” BP said.

“Before the agreement to sell these assets in in Pakistan, BP already had sales agreements in place totalling approximately 21 billion dollars.” BP chief executive Bob Dudley said the company was making speedy progress towards its goal.

“Today's agreement is further evidence of the rapid progress BP has made towards the divestment target we set out,” he said.

“We now have agreements to secure the majority of our divestment target. We are continuing to identify further assets that may be strategically more valuable to others than to BP as we complete the programme.”