MOSCOW (AP) — Russia on Thursday downplayed concerns that Rosneft’s possible purchase of BP’s stake in the joint venture TNK-BP, which analysts say would reshape the country’s oil industry and create the world’s biggest oil and gas company, is likely to threaten competition.

Moscow-based TNK-BP, Russia’s third largest energy producer in terms of production, is jointly owned by BP and AAR, a group of Russian billionaire shareholders. The two partners have been locked in a boardroom dispute for much of the group’s existence, and both have acknowledged that one of them needs to go.