British oil company BP has decided to sell the state of "Rosneft" 50% of TNK-BP for $ 17.1 billion and 12.84% stake in the Russian company, reports RIA "Novosti" with reference to BP.

"Today BP announced the signing of an agreement on the general conditions of sale on its 50 percent stake in TNK-BP to leading Russian oil company Rosneft. According to the agreement, Rosneft agreed in principle to buy out BP's stake in TNK-BP. Rosneft will pay $17.1 billion in cash and give BP 12.84% of its shares," said a BP representative.

In addition, BP plans to use $4.8 billion from the sale to purchase another 5.66% of Rosneft. The sale of BP shares in the joint venture is expected to be completed in the first half of 2013.

"And so, When the proposed transaction is completed, BP will receive a package of 18.5% of Rosneft and $12.3 billion in cash," says a BP announcement. Counting a current investment by BP of 1.25% of Rosneft, BP's share in the share capital of the Russian company will actually be 19.75%.

According to the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, the state company signed an agreement with BP and the AAR consortium (Alfa Group, Access Industries and the Renova group) about the buyback of their shares in TNK-BP. Rosneft has also agreed with AAR, the other major player in the Russian oil market, on the general terms of a transaction to acquire AAR's 50% stake in TNK-BP for $ 28 billion.

The company said that the deal with AAR is completely independent from the deal with BP.

President Vladimir Putin approved the terms of the deal reports Interfax. He also approved the terms by which BP will acquire a stake of Rosneft.

"This is a nice, big deal, which is not only for the Russian energy sector, but also for the Russian economy. I want to express hope that a partnership can be built in the near future with one of its largest shareholders, the foreign company (BP), this company has been working with us for a long time, and it has proven fruitful," Putin said at a meeting with Sechin.

If the Rosneft buys out TNK-BP completely, it will be the largest public company in the world for oil and gas. According to analyst Michael Krutikhin of the RusEnergy agency, the company's reserves more than double the reserves of the U.S. based Exxon Mobil, and according to experts Bloomberg, Rosneft's oil and gas surpass all Middle Eastern countries except Saudi Arabia.