BP's Sale Pays Off

BP stands to gain a profit of over $1.2 billion, including past dividends, from selling its 2% stake in PetroChina. The company's sale comes after becoming the only major to invest in PetroChina when 10% was floated four years ago, spending $620 million.

PetroChina's share price nearly tripled last year, raising its market capitalization to $112 billion. But the price has slid this month, helped by a downgrade by HSBC Securities, traditionally among the biggest boosters of Chinese oil stocks.

BP, the biggest foreign investor in China -- into which it has sunk an estimated $4 billion -- says it does not expect the sale to damage its relationship with PetroChina, with which it has formed a retail joint venture to build and run 500 service stations in Guangdong province. It should also please human rights advocates and environmentalists who have attacked BP over the Chinese company's links to oil and gas projects in Tibet and Sudan.