BP set to use Rosneft billions to help bolster its flagging share price

BP could be poised to buy back up to £4bn of shares to prop up its flagging share price, in a move likely to anger American regulators. The oil giant has a war chest from the $12.3bn sale of its stake in TNK-BP to Russia's Rosneft. BP said last week it would pay $4.5bn to resolve criminal and civil charges over the April 2010 rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 workers and caused the worst US offshore oil spill. A BP spokesman declined to comment on reports that it will engage in a share buyback.