BRUSSELS, March 8 (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulatorsunconditionally cleared on Friday Russian oil producer Rosneft's bid to acquire control of TNK-BP, sayingthey did not have any competition concerns.
State-owned Rosneft is buying TNK-BP from private Russiangroup AAR and British oil company BP in two separatedeals worth a total $55 billion, making it one of the biggesttakeovers in the sector.
Reuters had last week flagged news of the Commission'sexpected approval.
The European Commission said in a statement that itsinvestigation did not find any competition concerns.
"The merged entity would continue to face constraints from anumber of strong competitors, while its customers would becapable of switching both to other suppliers as well as to othermeans of transportation for their crude oil demands," it said.
BP (BP.)