Tony Hayward, BP's chief executive, on Wednesday visited Abu Dhabi, which is home to a range of sovereigninvestment vehicles and is one of the oil company's main partners in the Middle East.

Mr Hayward met senior officials including Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Abu Dhabi's crown prince, before leaving on Wednesday night.

The trip comes after the troubled oil company put out feelers to investment entities in the Middle East to gauge their interest in buying the group's shares following their dramatic decline after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Mr Hayward has also been travelling to reassureinternational partners that the company can withstand the liabilities that have arisen from the spill, and he has already visited Russia and Azerbaijan.

BP said on Monday it could meet the cost of the spill without issuing new shares, rejecting speculation that it was seeking a bail-out from a strategic buyer.

An official from one of the Persian Gulf states told the Financial Times that BP had been reaching out to investment entities in the region in recent weeks, particularly those in countries with which it already had relations.

The message, the official said, was: "Our stock is cheap, why not buy some?"

BP has a particularly long history with the UAE where it has operated since the 1930s and which is the centre of the company's Middle East and Pakistan operations. It is also one of the few Gulf states where BP is involved in production and exploration operations.

More than 90 per cent of the UAE's hydrocarbons resources are in Abu Dhabi, which also boasts one of the world's largest sovereignwealth funds, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which invested $7.5bn in Citigroup in November 2007.