BP has agreed to sell its giant German oil refinery site in Gelsenkirchen to the investment firm Klesch Group as part of the British oil company's plan to sell off $20 billion worth of assets and cut its costs.

The value of the sale was not disclosed but BP said it would save the oil company about $1 billion of underlying operating expenditure at the complex, which processes about 12 million tonnes of crude oil every year, mainly as fuel for cars and aircraft. The sale has also enabled BP to raise its cost-cutting target to between $6.5 billion and $7.5 billion by 2027, or almost a third of its cost baseline in 2023. It will also move forward the embattled oil company's divestment programme, which has now reached more than $11 billion of its $20 billion target by the same year, the Guardian UK reported.

As BP's third chief executive in under five years, Meg O'Neill, who takes over in April is expected to face pressure from disgruntled shareholders, including the New York activist hedge fund Elliott Management, to improve the company's fortunes as well as renewed calls from green groups to end their contribution to the climate crisis.