UPDATE 1-BHP sells stake in Philippine nickel project

* BHP exits Philippine nickel joint venture

* Sale of 40% stake marks BHP's latest exit from nickel

* Stake bought by Philippine partner (Adds details)

MANILA/SYDNEY, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Global miner BHP Billiton Ltd/Plc (BHP.AX) (BLT.L) has pulled out of a $2 billion nickel project in the southern Philippines after selling its 40 percent stake to a local partner.

The project was BHP's only mining venture in the Southeast Asian country and the move could be part of the miner's plan to exit the nickel business as early as next year after selling two major nickel divisions in four months. [ID:nSGE5BF02J]

In a statement e-mailed to Reuters, BHP said it signed a sales agreement for the stake with Asiaticus Management Corp of the Philippines, which is controlled by Filipino businessman Peter Tan and already owns 60 percent of the undeveloped nickel mining and processing project in the southern Mindanao region.

BHP and Asiaticus had been at odds over when to start commercial production. Asiaticus pushed to begin as soon as possible, while BHP wanted to wait until 2015 at the earliest, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza told Reuters in a telephone interview.

In 2007, the Philippine government announced that BHP would invest up to $2 billion in the country.

The mine is estimated to have 200 million tonnes of nickel ore reserves with 1.3 percent nickel.

BHP had spent about $3 million on exploration, according to government data.

"The BHP people have assured us, though, that they are definitely going to stay in the Philippines and continue their interest of developing some of the natural resources we have," Atienza added.

BHP declined to give commercial details of the sale.

BHP last month signed a joint venture agreement with state-run PNOC-Exploration Corp (PEC.PS) to develop the West Balabac offshore oil in the Palawan Basin, with BHP taking a 75 percent interest.

The Philippines is targeting its mining sector, one of the world's largest and most profitable in the early 1970s, to attract up to $14.5 billion in investments by 2013.

But only around $2.4 billion has flowed in since 2004 due to communist insurgencies, disputes with local communities and partners and opposition from the Catholic Church.

Since backing out of its Gag Island nickel joint venture with Indonesia's PT Antam Tbk 13 months ago, BHP has sent mixed signals about nickel.

The company still produces around a tenth of the world's nickel each year from operations in Australia and Colombia, but earlier this month it agreed to sell its Ravensthorpe laterite nickel project to First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO) for $340, and in July it sold its Australian Yabulu refinery to a local mining magnate, signalling that nickel, bought by stainless steel producers for alloying, has less-favoured status in BHP. (Reporting by Manolo Serapio Jr in MANILA and James Regan in SYDNEY, Editing by Ian Geoghegan)