Azernews.Az

(RIA Novosti, January 19) – Last week's $16 billion share swap deal between Russia's oil major Rosneft and BP may trigger other investors' interest to the country's ambitious privatization plan, Presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich said on Wednesday.

BP and Rosneft agreed on Friday that BP would swap a 5% stake in the company for a 9.5% stake in Rosneft. The firms also agreed to form a joint venture to develop three of Rosneft's offshore exploration blocks in northern Russia.

"It is quite logical step not only in the logic of asset swaps in the oil and gas sector, but also in the logic of privatization," Dvorkovich told gazeta.ru newspaper in an online interview.

"I would like to remind you that the president and the government have announced plans of a large-scale privatization of large stakes in state companies, including Rosneft. The deal can be considered as a start of implementation of the plan...The deal may be followed by greater investor interest to other state assets."

Last year the government approved a $60 billion five-year privatization program, the largest asset sale plan in over a decade. The plan includes the selloff of stakes in Russia's top banks VTB and Sberbank, Russian Railways monopoly, RusHydro hydro power firm, Sovcomflot shipping company and others.

"I think such deals should become normal practice," Dvorkovich said about the BP-Rosneft deal. "The deal stands out on the global investment market on the whole. It could be one of the star deals of 2011."