The US unit, which supplies aluminum sheet which was used to make beverage cans, is being acquired by association comprising of five Japanese companies which includes Sumitomo Light Metal Industries who will be taking a 40 percent stake, Furukawa Sky Aluminum Corp. will be taking 35 percent, Sumitomo Corporation 20 percent, Itochu Metals Corporation 3.0 percent and Itochu Corporation a 2.0-percent holding. BP’s decision of selling Arco Aluminum means that BP has entered agreement to dispose of more than $24bn of assets since last year’s disaster.

BP is hoping to unlock $30 billion by the end of 2011 to meet clean-up and compensation costs linked to last year's devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill that was caused by an explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon platform. The blast killed around 20 people and sent some 4.9 million barrels of oil into the gulf over a three-month period which wreaked havoc on environment and economy.

The group has also announced the sale of a natural gas processing plant to Anadarko Petroleum for $575.5m. As per the terms of the agreement, BP will be selling its 93 per cent stake in the Wattenberg, Colorado plant to Anadarko for cash. The plant has the capacity to process approximately 195m cubic feet per day of natural gas and 15,000 barrels per day of natural gas liquids and gas condensate.