Most of Russia’s oil and gas producers have posted strong income growth in the first quarter, thanks largely to a 36 percent rise in oil prices, while Rosneft remained the holder of the world’s largest hydrocarbon reserves, at 22.77 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

“Russian companies look strong comparing to their global peers, taking into account the output volumes and low finance and development costs ... So far we keep outlook stable on the major players. We see no reason to change it,” Moody’s senior credit officer Victoria Maisuradze said.

She also said a break-up of the $16 billion share swap and Arctic exploration deal between Rosneft and BP was not negative for Rosneft, Russia’s top crude producer, which is all but guaranteed a partner to tap the huge reserves.

Rosneft and BP were poised to develop Arctic oil fields with estimated reserves of 5 billion tons of oil and 10 trillion cubic meters of gas.

But the deal collapsed after BP’s partners in Russian joint venture TNK-BP won a court injunction prohibiting the tie-up after they claimed BP was bound by the shareholder agreement to conduct its business in Russia exclusively via TNK-BP.

“We don’t see the break-up with BP as negative factor for Rosneft. Sooner or later it will find a partner in the Arctic,” Maisuradze said.

She said Rosneft would still enjoy government support even after Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin stepped down as the company’s chairman on President Dmitry Medvedev’s order for ministers to leave state-owned corporations.

“It remains a state-owned company, and we expect it to stay in state hands after partial privatization. State support is very positive for Rosneft, as for other oil and gas companies, and state-controlled ones in particular.”

Many analysts believe that after the failure of the deal — blessed in January by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin — Russia’s huge reserves are off limits for TNK-BP.

But Maisuradze believes that the company, Russia’s third-largest oil producer, has opportunities to expand its business within the country thanks to some political backing.

“TNK-BP has potential for development in Russia; their production is growing by around two percent a year. AAR is a powerful group, and it helps TNK-BP to grow within Russia,” she said.

Last week, Russia’s No 2 oil producer, LUKOIL, said its crude production fell over five percent in the first quarter on the back of mature fields depletion, while its reserves replacement fell to 76 percent in 2010.

The company’s 2010 crude output edged down around 1 percent.

Maisuradze said LUKOIL’s declining crude production was a worrying sign but not yet alarming.

“The company enjoys stable leverage. The other thing is that the company’s reserves and crude oil production are falling. That’s not good. But it’s not an SOS signal, as we currently view it as rather short term,” she said.