* BP agreed to sell Andrew, Shearwater stakes to Premier
* Deal collapsed after Premier's takeover
* Assets valued at up to $80 million -sources
By Ron Bousso
LONDON, Jan 7 (Reuters) - BP has relauched the sale
of stakes in a number of North Sea oilfields it agreed to sell
to Premier Oil before the beleaguered company was taken over
last year, industry sources said on Thursday.
BP originally agreed to sell its interest in the fields in
the Andrew area and the Shearwater field to Premier a year ago
for a total of $625 million.
The companies later agreed to restructure the deal and lower
its cash value to $210 milion due to Premier's financing
problems. The transaction finally fell through after Premier was
taken over by rival Chrysaor in October.
BP has now relaunched the sale process for the assets and
has called for interested parties to send in bids with no
deadline, according to the sources.
A BP spokesman declined to comment.
It is unclear how much BP could raise from the sale of these
assets in the ageing North Sea basin, but their value is
unlikely to exceed $80 million following the collapse in oil
prices last year, according to two sources.
BP's hopes to sell $25 billion in assets by 2025 in an
effort to reduce debt as it begins a shift towards low-carbon
energy.
(Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
