Alex Nicholson

OAO Rosneft, Russia’s biggest oil company, climbed to the highest level in seven months on bets the company will acquire BP Plc’s local venture to match Exxon Mobil Corp.’s output.

Rosneft led gains on the Micex Index, adding 2.9 percent to 219.47 rubles, the highest since March 16. OAO TNK-BP Holding, the traded unit of BP’s Russian venture, fell 3.5 percent.

Rosneft submitted a bid today to buy BP’s 50 percent of TNK-BP for a mix of cash and shares that values the whole venture at $50 billion to $56 billion, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Rosneft has the fourth-biggest weighting in the Micex at 6.9 percent. Rosneft already has a preliminary accord with BP’s billionaire partners in TNK-BP, another person said. Absorbing the company would raise oil and gas production to about 4.5 million barrels a day.

“Rosneft is boosting its presence on the market, trying to consolidate its stake in the sector,” Sergey Vakhrameev, an analyst at IFC Metropol in Moscow, said by phone.

TNK-BP dropped the most since June 1 when BP said that it would pursue a sale of its stake in Russia’s third-largest oil producer, unwinding a nine-year investment.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-18/rosneft-advances-to-seven-month-high-on-tnk-bp-bid-moscow-mover.html