BP to earn £200m by selling North Sea pipeline

BP is expected to net £200 million if it sells its historic Forties pipeline in the North Sea to chemicals producer Ineos.

The pipeline was built to bring oil from the giant Forties field to the UK's Grangemouth refinery, near Edinburgh, Scotland. Its opening in 1975 marked a key milestone in the North Sea oil boom. Grangemouth is now owned by Ineos, which in turn is owned by Jim Ratcliffe.

The refinery was the scene of a bitter dispute between the billionaire and trade unions which saw him threaten to shut the plant.

The Forties pipeline still carries 40 per cent of UK oil production, or 450,000 barrels a day, from about 80 fields.

A source close to the deal said: 'Just 12 per cent of that is from BP, so it is no longer strategically significant to BP, but it is to Ineos because of Grangemouth.'

BP is selling assets in the southern North Sea, but is investing west of Shetland and in the northern North Sea, including in the Clair field, which holds an estimated 8 billion barrels of oil