BP to sell American refinery

BP continued its giant sell-off after agreeing to dispose of its Carson refinery in California to America's Tesoro for $2.5bn (£1.6bn) yesterday.

The deal, which also includes assets such as pipelines, storage terminals and Arco-branded retail outlets in southern California, Arizona and Nevada, brings the amount of money BP has now raised through its ongoing sale process to $26.5bn since the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in April 2010.

BP plans to sell a total of $38bn worth of assets as it seeks to repay bills relating to the clean-up, fines and compensation that have arisen from the Macondo spill which resulted in 11 deaths and widespread damage to the environment. Tesoro will also get Carson's inventory as part of the deal.

BP announced in February last year that it planned to sell its Carson 266,000 barrel-a-day refinery near Los Angeles and the Texas City Refinery in Texas to concentrate on its more profitable US refining business in the north. Carson is the first of the refineries to be sold.