BP to sell $10bn of assets by year end; warns of third-quarter output drop

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Oil giant BP said it expected complete a planned $10bn of asset sales by the end of the year and ahead of schedule, while also warning of lower production in the third quarter.

The divestments included the $5.6bn sale announced in August of BP's Alaskan assets to Hilcorp.

They also included the sale of four packages of legacy gas assets from its US Lower 48 business.

BP said the deals comprised the majority of a two-year divestment programme planned to complete by the end of 2020.

As a result of the sales, the company said it expected to take a non-cash net impairment charge $2bn-to-$3bn in its third quarter 2019 results.

Third-quarter production, meanwhile, was impacted by turnarounds in some of the company's highest-margin regions, and output in the US Gulf of Mexico was significantly disrupted by Hurricane Barry, with facilities shut down for around 14 days.

These factors together impacted BP's third-quarter production by around 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with the overall production mix having a higher proportion produced from higher-tax regions.

As a result, BP's underlying effective tax rate was expected to be around 50% in the third quarter, significantly higher than in the second quarter.=

The full year 2019 tax guidance of around 40% remained unchanged.

At 1:03pm: (LON:BP.) BP PLC share price was -8.3p at 493.7p