White House give sanctions exemption to BP and Serica over Iran-owned licence

Oil giants British Petroleum and Serica Energy have been granted licences to run a North Sea gas field owned, in part, by Iran.

The White House made the rare exemption on Tuesday as the administration was beginning to take steps towards its next set of sanctions on Tehran.

President Trump's waiver extension will allow Serica to complete its acquisition of BP's stake in three fields in the region - the Rhum, Bruce and Keith fields - and will also grant it time to snap up Total's stakes in the Bruce and Keith fields.

Rhum, which supplies roughly 5% of the UK's gas, is half owned by Iranian Oil Company, a subsidiary of the national oil company.

While renewed US sanctions on Tehran, set to come into effect on 4 November, block US firms and citizens from doing business with Iranian companies, Serica said its new licence was conditional on it setting up an escrow account to hold its profits from the assets as long as Trump's new sanctions remained in place - a similar play to the one it had used during the last round of US.

As of 1130 BST, BP shares were up 0.45% to 579.20p, while Serica shares had shot up 33.87% to 103.08p.