* Morgan Stanley sold most of oil trading to Rosneft
* Rosneft is the world's top listed oil company by output
* Deal boosts Rosneft in global oil markets -CEO Sechin
MOSCOW, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Russia's Rosneft willbe trading oil from offices in London, New York and Singaporefollowing its purchase of Morgan Stanley's business, in achallenge to established players such as BP.
Rosneft jumped to the top of the global production leaguethis year with a $55 billion acquisition of rival TNK-BP. Thismade the company the world's largest listed oil producer withrefining assets across Russia and the European Union. But thestate-controlled group lacked a large trading division, whichinternational oil companies such as BP and Royal Dutch Shell have.
The Morgan Stanley deal, agreed last week, representsa "breakthrough in strengthening Rosneft's commerce andlogistics unit, which will spearhead the company's growth in theinternational oil and products markets," Chief Executive IgorSechin said on Monday.
Morgan Stanley has sold the majority of its global physicaloil trading operations to Rosneft, becoming the latest WallStreet firm to dispose of a major part of its commoditybusiness. The parties did not disclose the price.
The deal sends a clear signal Rosneft is keen to regain asmuch added value as possible from trading after selling oil foryears via international energy companies such as BP ortrading houses such as Vitol and Gunvor.
Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, said thetransaction would boost the company's presence on the global oilmarkets and help to increase the value of Rosneft's own oiloutput as well as open up new revenue streams by providingaccess to third-party crude oil and products.
The deal is the latest push by Rosneft into North Americaand follows an agreement with ExxonMobil in 2011 whichgave the state-run company access to some projects, such as theCardium tight oil project in Canada, West Texas unconventionalexploration and deepwater exploration in Gulf of Mexico in theUnited States.
Some 100 traders and 180 back-office personnel will bejoining Rosneft, from Morgan Stanley under the deal.But Rosneft's trading desks will still be dwarfed by BP's trading operation of over 3,000 people.
The purchase will not include Morgan Stanley's oil storage,pipeline and terminals firm, TransMontaigne Inc., which may helpavoid significant scrutiny of the deal in Washington.
Rosneft is currently pumping around 40 percent of Russia'stotal crude production of 10.6 million barrels per day.
Rosneft has an oil trading division in Geneva, which helpssupply its refining assets in Europe.