Two significant deals signed over the weekend for BP PLC (BP) to explore for oil and gas offshore Russia and Australia show that the company's recovery from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is strengthening, said analysts and investors Monday.

While the company's future in the U.S. remains uncertain, the new agreements demonstrate that the Deepwater Horizon disaster is not deterring other countries from doing business with BP. But while analysts praised the BP deals, they noted that both are long term and therefore unlikely to provide rapid relief to BP investors who lost billions due to the spill, analysts said.

One of the big fears was that BP wouldn't be awarded exploration licenses in other countries because of the spill, said Colin Morton, a fund manager at Rensburg Fund Management, which has a stake in BP. "Other countries aren't saying that BP can't explore...they have no real concerns over BP's safety record," he said.

"BP is moving onto the front foot," said analysts at Morgan Stanley in a research note. The company is still a bold, confident and innovative dealmaker, it said.

At 1611 GMT, BP shares were up 0.3%, or 2 pence, to 501p. BP shares closed at a more than six-month high last week at it looked like the company could face lower spill costs than expected.

BP's most dramatic recent deal came on Friday when it announced a joint venture with state-controlled company OAO Rosneft (ROSN.RS) to look for for oil and gas in Russia 's Arctic . BP will provide the funding and technical knowhow to lead exploration efforts in 125,000 square kilometers of the ice-bound South Kara Sea, which by Russian estimates, could contain around 100 billion barrels equivalent of oil and gas.

BP and Rosneft also announced a share swap to cement the deal. Each company will issue around $8 billion in new shares to the other and agree to hold them for at least two years.

Monday, BP announced that it had been awarded four deepwater blocks covering 24,000 square kilometers off South Australia . Water depths in some of the blocks are up to twice that of BP's Macondo well, which leaked millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf last year in one of the world's worst spills.

Igor Sechin, Russia 's Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of Rosneft, said BP was chosen in part because of its experience handling the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last summer. That disaster, "provided the company with one of its competitive advantages, which we will rely upon as we develop offshore," Sechin said at a press conference to announce the deal. That BP has survived such a crisis makes it a more valuable partner, he said.

Australia 's Energy Minister, Martin Ferguson, said BP was awarded the four permits following an "extensive assessment" by regulators that examined the company's technical and financial competence. BP has agreed to "fully integrate lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon incident into its systems and processes," Ferguson said.

"BP's credibility as an explorer and operator of the deepwater has been revalidated," said Morgan Stanley.

However, analysts noted that both these deals are only likely to yield commercial rewards in the long term. BP plans to drill its first Australian exploration well in 2013 and its first Russian wildcat in 2015.

"While we think this offers a good opportunity for BP in the next decade, it does little to address the lack of growth in the near term and the portfolio gap in the 2015-2020 period versus peers," said analysts at Bernstein research in a note.

BP has already written off $40 billion to cover the cost of the spill and could face further fines running into the tens of billions of dollars. It also suspended all dividend payments for the last three quarters.

The spill will also dent BP profits for years to come. The company has already been forced to sell $22 billion worth of oil and gas production assets to cover spill costs. It plans to sell up to $30 billion in total, probably reducing its production by around 10%.

The deals in Russian and Australia will yield only costs initially. BP will carry all exploration costs up to $2 billion in Russia , and only claim Rosneft's share of expenditure back later. This will not be greeted favourably by investors either, Bernstein added.

There are also short-term risks as BP continues to operate under heavy scrutiny from the U.S. government and environmental groups.

Republican U.S. Congressman Michael Burgess, who sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has already raised national security concerns about a company controlled by the Russian government becoming one of the largest shareholders in BP, which is one of the largest suppliers of fuel to the U.S. military and operator of strategically important U.S. energy infrastructure.

"BP may think it can continue taking huge risks with our environment by hiding out in the Arctic , but they're wrong," Ivan Blokov, a Campaign Director at Greenpeace Russia said on the group's website. "The world is keeping a close eye on BP and any company involved in Arctic drilling."

"From a political point of view and a PR point of view, they are going to get quite a bit of stick for this," said Morton.

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