BP Selling Its Southern Calif. Gasoline Business

LOS ANGELES (AP) - BP PLC says it is selling its Southern California gasoline business as part of a major restructuring after last year's catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The sale includes the huge Carson refinery south of downtown Los Angeles and its local Arco gasoline operations.

According to The Los Angeles Times, the oil giant said Tuesday that it also would sell its Texas City, Texas, refinery, where a 2005 explosion and fire killed 15 people and injured more than 170 others.

BP says it expects to get at least $4.4 billion for the Los Angeles marketing operations and the refineries, which represent about 28 percent of its global refining capacity. The sales are expected to be wrapped up by the end of 2012.

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Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com