Reuters reported that British oil company BP wants to buy a stake in Russian state controlled peer Rosneft adding a new dimension to a long running struggle for control of a big chunk of the country's oil production.

Mr Igor Sechin CEO of Rosneft said that Mr Bob Dudley CEO of BP and chairman Mr Carl-Henric Svanberg have put the Rosneft proposal to Russian President Mr Vladimir Putin.

The deal would see Rosneft take BP's stake in TNK-BP USD 60 billion joint venture with Russian oligarchs that BP wants to exit. Last year, TNK-BP blocked a deal that would have seen BP and Rosneft explore for oil in the Arctic.

Mr Sechin said that "We are very pleased by this offer. It allows us to fulfil the tenets of cutting the state's stake in Rosneft and we are working firmly towards this."

A BP spokesman said that "BP is considering further investment in Russia regardless of who we sell our stake to we would be interested in investing some of the proceeds in buying shares in Rosneft adding that any purchase depended on a sale of its TNK-BP stake going through.

BP is seeking to exit its troubled but lucrative investment in TNK-BP, Russia's third largest oil company which it formed nearly a decade ago with four tycoons Mr Len Blavatnik, Mr Mikhail Fridman, Mr German Khan and Mr Viktor Vekselberg to tap the country's vast energy reserves.

Source - Reuters

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