PARIS (Reuters) - PSA Peugeot Citroen (>> PEUGEOT) is talking to potential customers for an anticipated surplus of engines as BMW (>> Bayerische Motoren Werke AG) and Ford (>> Ford Motor Company) stop using motors jointly developed with the French carmaker, a senior executive said on Thursday.

Paris-based Peugeot is contact with at least three possible clients for 1.6-litre gasoline engines manufactured for BMW and larger diesels built for Ford in Tremery, eastern France, powertrain chief Christian Chapelle told Reuters.

BMW and Ford both pulled the plug on engine deals with Peugeot after it entered a short-lived alliance with General Motors (>> General Motors Company) in 2012. Peugeot and Ford still share some smaller diesels.

BMW is steadily introducing its own small gasoline engines to Mini and 1-Series models, replacing those developed with Peugeot and produced in Douvrin, northern France, while Ford is dropping Peugeot diesels of two-liters and above.

"PSA still has the right to sell these engines and there are plenty of people who are interested," Chapelle said in an interview at the Paris car show, declining to elaborate.

Under new Chief Executive Carlos Tavares, Peugeot is recovering from a European car sales slump that saw it lose more than 7.3 billion euros ($9.3 billion) over two years and receive successive French government-backed bailouts.

The end of its deal with BMW and reduced cooperation with Ford have raised questions over Peugeot's ability to fund solo development of new engines to replace its current lineup in compliance with ever-tightening emissions standards.

Renewed development and manufacturing of future diesels with Ford have not been ruled out, Chapelle also said on Thursday.

GM in December sold the 7 percent Peugeot stake it had purchased the previous year, as the two carmakers effectively ended an alliance plan and scaled down cooperation.

(Reporting by Laurence Frost and Irene Preisinger; editing by Keiron Henderson)

By Gilles Guillaume