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By Sarah Young and Dmitry Zhdannikov
LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) - British oil company BP plans to separate its onshore U.S. oil and gas assets into a newwholly-owned business to improve the competitiveness of itsshale gas portfolio there.
A number of big oil companies, including rival Europeanoperators Shell and BG, have struggled aftermaking big investments in U.S. shale which have left themexposed to depressed gas prices, dragging on their profits.
BP said a separate U.S. shale business, headquartered at anew location in Houston, would be more competitive because itwould have faster decision-making abilities and shorter cycletimes from gaining access to drill through to production.
"The new business will remain a critical part of BP'sportfolio over the long-term," BP Chief Executive Bob Dudleytold a presentation in London, adding the creation of a"discrete, high quality" unit would give options for the future.
BP, Europe's second-biggest oil company by stock marketvalue, said in October it would sell $10 billion worth of assetsby the end of 2015, building on the $40 billion of assets itsold to help pay for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The separate U.S. business, which excludes BP's substantialportfolio off the U.S. coast, would consist of unconventionalresources of around 7.6 billion barrels of oil equivalentincluding BP's stakes in the prolific Eagle Ford shale in Texas,BP said, adding it would start to disclose separate results forthe new business from 2015.
BP's larger rival Shell said in January it could look todispose of parts of its U.S. shale business as part of a driveto improve its capital efficiency.
Shares in BP traded down 0.4 percent at 1356, paring earliergains of around about 0.5 percent, lagging Britain's blue chipFTSE 100 index which was up 1.4 percent.
The company suffered a setback on Monday when a U.S. courtdecision against it hurt its efforts to limit payments over thespill.
