UK gold coin sales jump on concerns over Labour’s fiscal plans
While the possibility of a capital gains hike by Labour adds to the coins’ appeal, it’s one of many potential drivers for the Mint’s increased sales.
BHP PLC (LSE:BP) is on the verge of concluding a deal for the sale of its offshore oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico for $7 billion to Houston-based Plains Exploration & Production (NYSE:PXP).
The Wall Street Journal cites inside sources as saying that negotiations are approaching completion with the announcement of a deal possible as soon as this week.
BP has offloaded a bevy of assets over the past two years to pay for the massive oil spill caused in April 2011 by the fatal Deepwater Horizon drilling-rig explosion.
BP has thus far agreed to sell around $26.5 billion assets out of $38 billion earmarked for sale.
Last month BP concluded a deal to sell a refinery in southern California along with related properties to Tesoro Corp. (NYSE:TSO) for a consideration of $2.5 billion.
Plains is a Houston-based oil explorer and producer founded in 2002 with oil and gas projects in California, Texas, Louisiana, the Rocky Mountains and the Gulf of Mexico. Its market capitalization is around $5.2 billion, and the company is expected to go into debt to pay for the deal.
Comments
fanny may cartwright
…Or better still, why doesn’t BP just commit sepuku? It’s going to be a long time before people on the Gulf Coast forget B.P.’s incompetence in dealing with the Makondo spill, which was followed by another gusher of lame excuses for the company’s wanton stupidity in dealing with it. Never mind the long term health consequences to the public of dumping an ocean of cancer promoting Corexit into our Gulf waters — the other shoe has still to drop on that—, every storm that comes in reminds us with fresh, new tar-balls on our beaches. Do the honorable thing B.P.!