"If BP starts to sell assets which are of interest to us, we will take part," he told reporters, adding that BP has yet to decide which assets it will sell.
He also said that TNK-BP, responsible for a quarter of BP's output, would be particularly interested in the British oil major's downstream units in Europe and other assets related to tight and unconventional gas and offshore drilling.
BP plans to sell some $10 billion of assets to help pay for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Analysts said a best case scenario for the beleaguered company, which has yet to reveal what property it will put up for sale, could be a sale to TNK-BP, joint-owned by BP and its Russia-connected partners.
"On the whole, BP sees TNK-BP as an internal cash reserve, and an asset sale to TNK-BP could mean more indirect income via dividends for BP," Denis Borisov, oil and gas analyst at the Bank of Moscow, said.
"With a low debt to earnings ratio TNK-BP would see no obstacle in raising cash to pay for any attractive BP assets," Borisov noted.
Other analysts, however, think a BP sale to its Russian cash cow wouldn't necessarily be welcomed by the company's local owners unless it came at a fire sale price.
"Refining margins in Europe are low, so TNK-BP would only be interested if the price is right. BP needs to raise cash and sell at a decent price, but this would mean milking TNK-BP in favor of BP," said Alexander Nazarov, oil analyst at Metropol.
"I can't think the Russian side would like that too much," he added.
BP publicly clashed with its local partners for control of TNK-BP in 2008, in part because the quartet of billionaires who own 50 percent of the company wanted their British partner to accept a more aggressive refining stance.
BP has said it would suspend dividends to shareholders, reduce its investment program and sell some of its assets after agreeing with the US government to set aside $20 billion to pay for the spill.
TNK-BP is also in the process of recovering part of its $1 billion investment in the huge Kovykta gas field near China after it pushed the field unit towards bankruptcy.
The positive outcome of the process, which Barsky said would take about a year, would allow TNK-BP to acquire funds to invest into its asset base expansion. Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Muir said TNK-BP may borrow up to $1 billion later this year.
The firm has been actively seeking to increase its foreign presence and last month it entered the lucrative market of Iraq with a view to tapping the world's third-largest crude reserves.
The overseas expansion was a concession made by BP in a peace deal with its local shareholders after the protracted conflict ended in mid-2008.
The conflict ended with a decision to dismiss Robert Dudley as CEO and recall Barsky who was seen as an independent manager and who will take over the company starting from 2011.
