Oil company BP, battling to contain the worst oil spill in US history, may revive talks to sell some of its Alaskan assets after it failed to reach a deal with Apache last week, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

BP has the assets under review, including half its stake in the Prudhoe Bay oil field, said the people who declined to be identified as the details are private.

The company may also move to sell other assets, including fields in Vietnam and Colombia, in coming weeks as bids from potential buyers exceed the company's expectations, one of the people said.

BP, Europe's largest oil producer by volume, last week agreed to sell oil and gas fields in the US, Canada and Egypt to Houston-based Apache for $7bn, raising cash to meet the cost of the Gulf of Mexico spill.

Bloomberg