Russia's Rosneft eyes Iraqi oil, EU refineries

MOSCOW, Oct 27 (Reuters) - The head of Rosneft, Russia's largest oil producer, said on Tuesday the firm was studying a possibility of taking part in Iraqi oil tenders with a partner and repeated that it eyed refinery plants in Europe.

Iraq will hold a second auction of oil contracts in December 2009. Russia's oil majors including Rosneft, the country's second-largest crude producer LUKOIL (LKOH.MM: Quote, Profile, Research), 50 percent BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research)-owned TNK-BP (TNBPI.RTS: Quote, Profile, Research) and mid-sized Tatneft (TATN3.MM: Quote, Profile, Research) also may participate in the tenders.

"We haven't yet chosen a partner with whom we will go to the Iraqi tenders in December. We have to look at the conditions, if they are viable and what the prospects are," Sergei Bogdanchikov told reporters on Tuesday on the sidelines of a conference in Moscow.

Iraq, which relies on oil sales for almost all of its budget income and desperately needs to boost revenues to rebuild its dilapidated infrastructure, aims to offer 10 oilfields to oil majors.

In a previous round of oil contract auctions in June, the only long-term service deal came to BP and China's CNPC.

Bogdanchikov also reiterated that the state-controlled Rosneft is looking at buying downstream assets in Europe after last month French major Total (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) proposed to sell its refining business.

"It's possible we buy refineries in Europe. But the deal should be economically viable," he said, adding that it was important that Rosneft would be able to supply the facility with its Urals URL-E blend.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Anton Doroshev)