BP PLC (BP) is going to pull out of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium either by selling its stake or by giving it in trust to Russia's major OAO Lukoil (LKOH.RS) over the dispute on the expansion of the pipeline, a person familiar with the matter told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday.
BP spokesman in Moscow said selling the stake was one of the options the company is examining, but the decision hasn't been taken, as the talks with Russia's state crude pipeline monopoly Transneft, which holds Russia's 24% stake in CPC, continue.
BP, which doesn't ship oil through the pipeline, which runs from Kazakhstan via Russia to the Black Sea, opposes the proposed financing of the CPC expansion.
BP has a 6.625% stake in CPC through interests in two joint ventures.
CPC shareholders, which include the Kazakh and Russian governments, and several Russian and Western oil majors, agreed in principle on increasing the pipeline's capacity by 1.34 million barrels a day.
However, a BP spokesman said the financing proposal bears disproportionate risk for the company.
Transneft has repeatedly accused BP of blocking the expansion project, as it might be in direct competition with the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in which BP is a shareholder.