The Daily Telegraph calls the tentative agreement “an historic deal” and the Wall Street Journal “a game changer for the Russian oil industry”.

The deal would also mark the largest ‘realignment of Russia’s oil industry’ since the collapse of Yukos, says the Financial Times.

The FT also says that the second biggest shareholder, AAR, gave up on its own ambition take over TNK-BP because its owners saw that BP had already taken the decision.”

Industry experts cited by Reuters were concerned that too much debt raised by Rosneft to buy out BP’s (and maybe AAR’s) stake would impact the company’s credit rating and make it more difficult to pay it off in the future.

While the Wall Street Journal’s analyst predicts more benefits to Rosneft rather than to BP, Forbes is certain BP will get over the loss – first, it is desperate for cash to settle the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, second, it will now be “better positioned for long-term growth from a solid core of assets” and third, the sale does not mean BP will be completely out of Russia.

Apart from giving a detailed overview of the shaky relations between investors within TNK-BP, Reuters reminds that the proposed deal could pave the way for strategic cooperation between BP and Rosneft that the two giants pursued in the past but that was blocked by AAR earlier.

With Rosneft now taking the lead, says the FT, the road for a joint venture between the two is open – leading to the same level of collaboration that “ExxonMobil, Statoil and Eni have forged in the last year.”

Bloomberg looks at the stocks behaviour ahead of what it calls “the industry’s second-biggest deal ever” and quotes the Russian Energy Minister as saying that the acquisition will not create a monopoly in the market because there will still be enough competition.

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