BP to sell stake in major North Sea gas pipeline

[LONDON] Oil major BP has put up for sale its stake in one of Europe's biggest natural gas pipelines in the North Sea as part of its ongoing asset disposal programme.

BP holds a 36 per cent interest in the 404-kilometre subsea Central Area Transmission System (CATS) that runs through the central sector of the British North Sea.

The pipeline pumps up to 1.7 billion cubic metres of gas a day from UK North Sea fields, more than eight times Britain's average daily gas demand.

"In December, BP announced the intent to sell our equity in the CATS business," the company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

Last June, British peer BG Group announced the sale of its 62.78 per cent interest in the CATS pipeline for nearly US$1 billion to the Antin Infrastructure Partners fund.

The pipeline has a transportation capacity of 293,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) to a natural gas terminal at Teesside in northeast England. Average throughput in 2014 was 134,000 boed.

BP has agreed the sale of around US$5 billion of assets as part of a US$10 billion disposal programme in 2014 and 2015.

REUTERS