Rosneft beats poll with $3.81 billion Q1 net profit

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday selected Eduard Khudainatov, currently first vice president of Rosneft, as the new president and chief executive of the state-owned oil group."Dmitry Medvedev met with Rosneft First Vice President Eduard Khudainatov. At the end of the meeting he ordered the government to submit his candidature as the president of Rosneft," the Kremlin said in a statement.The president and chief executive of Rosneft, which is seventy-five percent owned by the Russian state, is appointed by the company's board of directors.

Cnooc Ltd. reported 2012 profit that missed analyst estimates as China’s biggest offshore oil producer spent more to explore and revive stalled output growth. Net income fell to 63.7 billion yuan ($10.3 billion) in the 12 months ended Dec. 31 from 70.3 billion yuan a year earlier, the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange today. That compared with the 65.3 billion yuan mean of 29 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales climbed 2.8 percent to 247.6 billion yuan.

Rosneft is seeking to borrow up to US$30-billion from China in exchange for possibly doubling oil supplies, making Beijing the largest consumer of Russian oil and further diverting supplies away from Europe. Four industry sources familiar with the situation told Reuters Rosneft was in talks with China’s state firm CNPC about the borrowing, which would echo a $25 billion deal the two companies clinched last decade.

Hochtief AG, Germany’s largest construction company, agreed to sell its airports division to Public Sector Pension Investment Board of Canada as it narrows its focus to building. The deal values the business, which has stakes in airports in Athens, Budapest, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Sydney and Tirana, at about 1.5 billion euros (US$2 billion) and Hochtief will get 1.1 billion euros as some shares are held by business partners, the Essen, Germany-based builder said in a statement.

Shrinking British oil company BP Plc announced quarterly profit down a fifth from a year ago, after it sold assets in preparation for what could be its biggest oil spill payout when the case comes to trial later this month. BP, the last of the big four western world oil companies to report fourth quarter figures, still beat expectations because of one-off taxes related to its divestments and liability payments, and its shares rose nearly 2%.

SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - BP Plc's bosses have told Russian President Vladimir