London pre-open: All eyes on BP

17th Jan 2011 07:35

Attention is focused on BP this morning after the oil giant announced a controversial landmark deal with Rosneft, the Russian state oil company.The market overall is tipped to open moderately firmer, with the blue-chip index seen opening around 10 points up from Friday's close.As well as confirming the tie-up with Rosneft, BP said it has been awarded four deepwater blocks off the coast of south Australia. BP said that it will explore Exploration Permit for Petroleum (EPP) areas EPP 37, EPP 38, EPP 39 and EPP 40 covering an area of 24,000 square kilometres for oil and gas reserves, with the right to develop any commercially viable discoveries.It's the Rosneft deal, however, that is likely to garner most interest. The two companies have put in place a share-swap deal to cement an alliance that will see them jointly explore and develop three license blocks, EPNZ 1,2 & 3, on the Russian Arctic continental shelf.Rolls-Royce has won its biggest ever marine naval surface ship contract, sealing a deal to supply gas turbines and waterjets for ten of the US Navy's Littoral Combat Ships (LCS).Document and patent translation specialist SDL expects both revenue and profits for the year just ended to come in ahead of market forecasts.