BP has agreed to sell its interest in the Sean gas field in the North Sea to SSE for $228 million (£140.8m) in cash.

The agreement is part of the oil giant’s strategy to sell its stakes in non-operated North Sea assets, in which SSE will acquire 50% equity stake.

David Franklin, SSE’s Managing Director Energy Portfolio Management said: “We have made clear that SSE is proactively seeking new opportunities to increase our presence in the upstream gas sector where assets can be acquired for a fair price and that is exactly what this deal represents.”

The deal is expected to be completed during the first half of 2013. The current net BP production from the Sean field is around 18,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

BP also completed the sale of its non-operating stakes in the Alba and Britannia fields to Mitsui and the Draugen field in Norway to Shell.