LONDON, March 22 (Reuters) - British oil company BP said on Friday it would launch an $8 billion share buy-backprogramme to return cash to shareholders after closing the saleof its stake in its Russian unit.
BP, which completed the sale of its partially-owned Russianoil firm TNK-BP to Rosneft on Thursday, saidthe $8 billion return to shareholders was an amount equivalentto the value of the company's original investment in TNK-BP.
BP received $12 billion from the sale and had flagged thatit would distribute some of that to shareholders.