MOSCOW, September 27 - RAPSI. The hearings in the Alfa-Access-Renova consortium's lawsuit against Britain's BP will be held in the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal on Wednesday, a source told the PRIME agency.

Alfa-Access-Renova comprises TNK-BP's Russian shareholders.

BP is the world's third largest oil major company employing over 80,000 people. BP owns 50 percent of TNK-BP International Limited, which in turn owns 95 percent of TNK-BP holding.

TNK-BP is a leading Russian oil company and is among the top ten privately-owned oil companies in the world in terms of crude oil production.

In 2003, three of Russia's leading groups - Mikhail Fridmans Alfa Group, Leonid Blavatnik's Access Industries, and Viktor Vekselberg's Renova -- formed the consortium. Its key asset is a 50-percent share in TNK-BP. The consortium represents the Russian shareholders interests in the company.

The consortium filed a request with the tribunal in mid-August to start hearings to pass a ruling on BP's violation of a shareholder's agreement with TNK-BP. The issue of financial compensation must be considered separately in a British court.

The consortium believes that BP's refusal to allow TNK-BP to take part in a joint arctic project with Rosneft and an equity swap transaction resulted in major losses for the company. The agreement provided for the opposite.

The consortium earlier said that they assess the damages at $5-10 billion.