In an expansion of their ongoing global partnership, BP and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) entered into a framework agreement on strategic cooperation covering potential shale gas exploration and production in the Sichuan Basin and future fuel retailing ventures in China and other international partnerships.

BP reached a $20.8 billion civil settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice and five Gulf states on Monday to resolve civil claims tied to the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident.

A U.S. regulatory judge ruled BP PLC manipulated the Texas natural gas market in 2008 and said fines against the British energy company could increase because the scheme took place after earlier market manipulation.

BP’s second-quarter replacement cost (RC) loss was $6,266 million, compared with a profit of $3,182 million a year ago.

BP swung to a $6.3 billion second quarter loss on Tuesday after write downs tied to the ongoing conflict in Libya and the company’s recent Deepwater Horizon settlement.

BP Plc reached a $18.7 billion settlement to end five years of litigation following the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. It is the largest settlement with a single entity in U.S. history, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from oil majors BP and Anadarko Petroleum leaving intact a lower court ruling that makes the firms potentially liable for billions of dollars in fines for the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

‘Rosneft and BP signed final binding agreements for Rosneft’s sale to BP of a 20 per cent share of Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha (Taas), creating a new joint venture in East Siberia. The document was signed by Rosneft Management Board Chairman Igor Sechin and President of BP Russia David Campbell’ BP said, reporting one of the most relevant deals. During the first day of the international conference, Gazprom agreed to build a new pipeline to Germany under the Baltic Sea with Germany’s E.ON, Anglo-Dutch Shell, and Austria’s OMV.

Rosneft and BP today signed several agreements strengthening the long term strategic relationship between the two companies, at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

BP could be close to a $700 million deal with Russia’s Rosneft for a 20% stake in a Siberian oilfield, the company led by Igor Sechin further showed how national companies can cope with sanctions, maintaining ties with Western companies and progressively switching to Asian markets.