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UK oil giant BP and Indian company Reliance Industries have announced a "transformational" strategic oil and gas partnership in India.The deal is expected to result in a total combined investment in India of $20bn, according to the companies' joint statement. The companies will form a 50:50 joint venture for sourcing and marketing energy in India. The deal gives BP a 30% stake in 23 oil and gas blocks owned by its new partner including 19 off India's east coast. In return, the UK firm will pay $7.2bn (£4.4bn), plus up to a further $1.8bn in future performance-related payments. "This is a clear reflection of the way in which believe that the energy industry is developing," said BP's chairman, Carl-Henrik Svanberg. He said that the company predicted global energy consumption would rise by 40% between now and 2030 , with most of the growth coming from emerging markets such as India. "This has huge significance for India's economic devel

BP Plc and Russia's state-controlled Rosneft agreed to a share swap under which they plan to jointly explore for offshore oil and gas in a deal that gives the UK company access to areas of the Arctic previously reserved for Russian oil companies. BP, recovering from its Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster , will swap 5 percent of its shares, valued at $7.8 billion, for 9.5 percent of Rosneft in an agreement that immediately raised concerns about U.S. economic security from at least two American lawmakers and criticism from environmentalists. The deal covers huge areas of the South Kara Sea in the Arctic that BP said could contain billions of barrels of oil and gas and had been previously off limits to foreign companies. The pact, which is expected to be completed in a few weeks, highlights a rebound in relations with Moscow both for BP and its Chief Executive Bob Dudley , who was forced to flee Russia in 2008 after heading BP's Russian joint venture, TNK-BP, which is half-ow