In all the hubbub over BP plc (NYSE:BP) frantically selling assets to pay for the tragic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a lot of folks had forgotten that other major oil companies are also selling big chunks of assets. ConocoPhillips Co. (NYSE:COP) has $10 billion worth up for sale, which is what BP said it would sell until it bumped up that figure to $30 billion last week. Royal Dutch Shell Group plc (NYSE:RDS-A) is also jettisoning $7 billion to $8 billion of assets.

It's actually a good time to be selling oil and gas assets. Prices have come up considerably from their lows after the financial crash in the fall of 2008. And everyone has come through the recession with new thoughts about what's really important to focus on, and what's not.

For ConocoPhillips, after its not-so-fortuitous bet on natural gas prices, represented by the $35.6 billion purchase of Burlington Resources Inc. in 2006, that means getting back to basics -- as well as paying down debt. So some of the things on the block include a 425-megawatt power plant, a 25% stake in the Rockies Express natural gas pipeline, 10% of its Lower 48 and Western Canada portfolio and its U.S. marketing activities. It's also shedding lower margin businesses in its fairway, including some of its refineries, such as its Wilhelmshaven facility in Germany. On a recent conference call with analysts and investors, CEO Jim Mulva said interest has grown in U.S. refining assets but a deal isn't imminent.

The company is also dumping the things that didn't really work, such as its 20% stake in Russian oil company OAO Lukoil, which it said last week it's selling back to Lukoil and the open market for around $10 billion. It was a decent return on a $7.5 billion investment, but ConocoPhillips was obviously hoping for something much greater, and some lucrative joint projects to go with it, in a country that produces a lot of oil -- more than Saudi Arabia now, according to some estimates -- but has also proved to a difficult place in which to work (remember TNK-BP Ltd.?). "The development of opportunities in Russia has not come as quickly as we would have thought," Mulva said on the call with analysts and investors.

ConocoPhillips is also taking advantage of renewed interest in the oil sands, with oil prices up again -- and up more than natural gas. In April it agreed to sell its 9.03% stake in oil sands mining operation Syncrude to units of Sinopec International Petroleum and Production Co., the international wing of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (NYSE:SNP), for $4.65 billion. And last month it sold its interest in the Flying J truck stop chain joint venture with bankrupt Flying J Inc. to private equity-backed Pilot Travel Centers for $626 million.

Mulva expects asset sales to reach $8 billion by the end of the year and may put part of the proceeds into expanding ConocoPhillips' presence in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, which has been small to date. But that will depend, of course, on what rules the federal government imposes on companies operating there after the moratorium is lifted in November. While it may seem crazy to even contemplate drilling there now, Mulva -- like other oil executives -- realizes that there are only so many places left to drill to feed a country that hasn't lost its appetite for fuel.