NEW ORLEANS/NEW YORK (Reuters) – BP Plc is in talks with US oil and gas company Apache Corp and others to sell assets worth up to $10 billion as it grapples with the costs of its spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP shares surged more than nine percent in London and nearly eight percent in New York yesterday, driven by the potential asset sales and hopes for a new system to capture almost all of the spewing oil that has fouled coastlines and hurt tourism and fisheries in five states.

"The political rhetoric is not as negative as it once was and that allows people to focus on all the value that lies within BP," said Kurt Wulff, president at McDep LLC, an energy investment research company in Needham, Massachusetts.

The British energy giant is in talks with Apache and others about potential asset sales, including stakes in its Alaskan oil fields, said a source familiar with the situation.

The talks are at an exploratory stage and it was not certain whether any plans would be advanced enough to be disclosed before BP announces second quarter earnings later this month, the source said.

BP and Apache declined to comment on the reports.

Meanwhile, in Washington the US Interior Department yesterday formally issued its new offshore oil drilling moratorium, saying it would end by November 30 or sooner and it would no longer be based on water depths.

"More than 80 days into the BP oil spill, a pause on deepwater drilling is essential and appropriate to protect communities, coasts, and wildlife from the risks that deepwater drilling currently pose," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement. "I am basing my decision on evidence that grows every day of the industry's inability in the deepwater to contain a catastrophic blowout, respond to an oil spill, and to operate safely," he added.

The asset sale talks come as scrutiny of BP ramps up with President Barack Obama's independent commission holding its first public hearings in New Orleans yesterday and today.

The panel of seven engineers, environmentalists and former politicians will investigate decisions by oil companies and government regulators that may have led to the worst oil spill in US history. BP, whose shares have fallen about 40 percent since an explosion on its Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20 unleashed the oil into the Gulf of Mexico, is under enormous pressure to halt the leak.

BP, which said the cost of the spill was now about $3.5 billion, expects its first relief well to reach the blown-out well late this month – a first step in finally plugging the gusher by the first half of August as planned.

President Obama is also under pressure to show his administration can resolve the spill and hold BP accountable. The disaster now sits atop his domestic agenda and has complicated the close ties between the United States and Britain.

Part of the recovery in BP shares, which had lost $100 billion in market capitalisation at one stage, is due to speculation the company is approaching sovereign wealth funds for cash to ward off a takeover and to help pay for the spill. BP CEO Tony Hayward met an Abu Dhabi state investment fund last week.