MOSCOW, November 11(RAPSI) – The Moscow Commercial Court granted petition filed by Rosneft seeking to increase its claim against RBC Media Holding to 3.179 billion rubles (about $48.5 million), RAPSI learnt in the court on Friday.

The court also dismissed the RBC’s motion to join UK oil giant BP as a party to the action saying that its ruling would not affect BP’s rights and legitimate interests.

At the same time, the court granted the holdings’ petition to adjourn hearings until December 12 agreeing that RBC needed more time to thoroughly study documents presented by Rosneft.

Russia’s top oil company Rosneft filed a lawsuit with the Moscow Commercial Court, accusing RBC Media Holding of libel over allegations concerning the company's privatization.

RBC journalists Timofey Dzyadko, Lyudmila Podobedova, and Maxim Tovkailo, alongside BisnessPress company, RBC newspaper publisher, have been named co-defendants in the case.

The lawsuit was brought after an article about Rosneft privatization headlined 'Rosneft requests authorities to protect it from BP' had been published on the website of the newspaper on April 11.

Rosneft claims that "information contained in the article published on RBC website is misleading." "It is a baseless fantasy on the part of journalists, or their so-called undisclosed sources,” the company said in the press-release adding that only the Russian government had the right to decide how the company was to be privatized.

Rosneft sought a retraction of the allegations reproduced by a number of other Russian outlets.

A statement of Rosneft denying the allegations was later published, but without a full retraction of the article, according to Mikhail Leontyev, Rosneft spokesman.