BP Plc, attempting to recover from an oil spill that may cost it $42 billion, said it will sell its wind power assets in the U.S. in another step to focus on its main oil and gas business.

BP plans to sell interests in 16 operating wind farms in nine states with a total capacity of about 2,600 megawatts, Mark Salt, a London-based spokesman for BP, said in an e-mailed statement. The company will also sell projects in various stages of development including 2,000 megawatts of wind poised to start construction, he said.

Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley has sold $38 billion in oil fields, pipelines and refineries to concentrate BP on its most profitable assets after the 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It withdrew from solar power in December 2011 and also scrapped investment in a carbon capture project in Scotland.

“BP has decided to market for sale our U.S. wind energy business as part of a continuing effort to become a more focused oil and gas company and re-position the company for sustainable growth into the future,” Salt said. “For BP, this effort represents another example of prudent and active management of our global portfolio, consistent with our pledge to unlock more value for shareholders.”

BP has invested more than $55 billion in U.S. energy development in the last five years, according to the company.

The sale would leave BP’s renewable energy business limited to biofuels research and ethanol refining in Brazil. Former CEO John Browne pushed the effort to move BP “beyond petroleum” starting in 1997, when the company became the first major oil company to encourage precautionary measures to combat global warming.