LONDON - BP kicked off a $10 billion asset sale aimed at raising cash to pay for its Gulf of Mexico oil spill, saying on Tuesday it planned to sell gas assets in Pakistan and Vietnam worth around $1.7 billion.A BP spokesman said on Tuesday the company was "exploring divestment options" for its interest in the Nam Con Son gas project, which the London-based company says is one of Vietnam's largest foreign investment projects.

The interest, which comprises stakes in the Lan Tay and Lan Do gas fields, the Nam Con Son pipeline and the Phu My power generation project, is worth $966 million, analysts at UBS said in a research note on Monday.BP also plans to sell its upstream assets in Pakistan which comprise of a number of producing fields and exploration blocks in the southern Sindh province. The fields are worth $690 million, UBS estimated.

The Pakistan fields produced 173 million cubic feet of gas per day in 2009 net to BP, while BP's share of the Vietnamese assets was 63 million cubic feet per day. Together they reflect around 1 percent of BP's total oil and gas output.The spokesman said the assets were deemed non-core for BP.China's CNOOC and Sinopec as well as Thailand's PTTEP and ONGC -- already a partner of BP's in Vietnam -- are likely to show interest in the Nam Con Son stake, bankers and analysts who are familiar with the asset told . Courtesy:Reuters