Russia 's biggest oil producer, OAO Rosneft (ROSN.RS), hopes to tap an emerging relationship with a state-run counterpart in Venezuela to buy its 50% stake in a German refiner, business daily Vedomosti reports Friday.

Rosneft's interest in the stake may be discussed Friday when Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pays a state visit to Venezuela 's President Hugo Chavez, Reuters cited two industry sources as saying.

State-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, owns half of Ruhr Oel GmbH. BP PLC (BP) holds the other 50% of the German company, which operates five refineries in its home country.

A Rosneft representative declined to comment, while efforts to reach PDVSA failed, Vedomosti says. A source close to Rosneft told the newspaper the idea of buying German refineries from PDVSA has been discussed for some time, with no concrete results. It "wasn't obvious" PDVSA wanted to sell its Ruhr Oel stake, he said.

During Putin's visit, Russia and Venezuela are expected to sign agreements creating a joint venture--including Rosneft and other Russian oil majors--to develop the Junin-6 oil block in the South American country's eastern Orinoco region.

In December 2003, PDVSA announced it would sell its Ruhr Oel stake to Alfa Group, a privately held Russian financial firm. But the deal collapsed in June 2004 when partner BP complained Alfa would be in conflict of interest as a shareholder in the TNK-BP oil venture in Russia .

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