LONDON, July 22 (UPI) -- A trimmer British company BP is recovering from the Gulf of Mexico spill with exploration deals in Africa and Asia, the top executive is expected to announce.
Embattled BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward is expected to tell shareholders next week that his company's long-term growth strategy is intact as it moves past the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, London's Guardian newspaper reports.
The British oil company is paying heavily for recovery operations under way along the southern U.S. coast after it temporarily capped a broken oil well in the Gulf of Mexico last week.
Hayward, the Guardian notes, will highlight a $9 billion deal to join forces with German energy company RWE to explore deep-water gas reserves off the coast of Egypt. The announcement of the Egyptian deal preceded plans unveiled this week to sell $7 billion worth of assets in a deal with rival company Apache Corp.
That move was announced as BP struggles to finance cleanup operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
Meanwhile, Hayward is expected to focus on a controversial drilling plan in Libya and deals with gas-rich Azerbaijan as evidence his company is surviving the Gulf of Mexico fallout.
