LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) - Oil major BP has put upfor sale its stake in one of Europe's biggest natural gaspipelines in the North Sea as part of its ongoing asset disposalprogramme.
BP holds a 36 percent interest in the 404-kilometre subseaCentral Area Transmission System (CATS) that runs through thecentral sector of the British North Sea.
The pipeline pumps up to 1.7 billion cubic metres of gas aday from UK North Sea fields, more than eight times Britain'saverage daily gas demand.
"In December, BP announced the intent to sell our equity inthe CATS business," the company said in a regulatory filing onTuesday.
Last June, British peer BG Group announced the saleof its 62.78 percent interest in the CATS pipeline for nearly $1billion to the Antin Infrastructure Partners fund.
The pipeline has a transportation capacity of 293,000barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) to a natural gasterminal at Teesside in northeast England. Average throughput in2014 was 134,000 boed.
BP has agreed the sale of around $5 billion of assets aspart of a $10 billion disposal programme in 2014 and 2015.
(Reporting by Ron Bousso, editing by David Evans)