BP to push back on U.S request of any asset sales notice: report

NEW YORK (Reuters) - BP Plc plans to push back against a request from the U.S. government for advance notice of any asset sales or other large transactions in the wake of the oil spill, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The report, in the paper's online edition, cited a person with knowledge of BP's thinking as saying the British oil company would examine how to address the department's concerns "without having to give advance notice of market-sensitive information and transactions."

The U.S. Justice Department had requested that all the companies involved in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, including BP, advise the department about its plans for transactions such as asset sales, divestments or other major financial dealings.

The person familiar with BP's thinking described the request as "peculiar" and "probably not legally enforceable", the Journal said.

A BP spokesman declined to comment on the Journal report. He would only confirm that the company had received the request and that it had not yet responded.

"We will reply in due course," said BP spokesman Daren Beaudo on Wednesday.

The Department of Justice declined to comment.

(Reporting by Martinne Geller; Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky and Joanne Allen in Washington; editing by Bernard Orr)