BP to sell Yacheng gas field to Kuwait Foreign Petroleum

Dec 19 (Reuters) - British oil major BP Plc said itwould sell its 34.3 percent stake in the Yacheng gas field inthe South China Sea to Kuwait Foreign Petroleum ExplorationCompany (KUFPEC) for $308 million in cash. "This sale is part of BP's ongoing global portfoliooptimisation," BP China President Chen Liming said. The sale takes BP's total divestments announced since 2010to $37.8 billion. Commercial production at Yacheng started in 1996. BPoperated the field until Jan. 1, 2004, when it handed overoperations to project partner CNOOC. The company expects the deal to close in the second half of2013. BP has undergone a massive rearrangement of assets - torefocus its Russian strategy and pay its dues on the oil spillin the U.S. Gulf of Mexico in 2010 - with total completed andplanned divestments of $65 billion, or about half its totalmarket value.