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Rosneft deals BP double blow

Января 31, 2011

Russian partners in TNK-BP venture start legal moves over Rosneft tie-up, as Rosneft announces deal with BP's US rival ExxonMobil.

BP is facing legal action from its oligarch partners in the TNK-BP joint venture as they try to halt BP's recent share-swap and Arctic exploration deal with rival Russian oil producer Rosneft.
At the same time, BP's march on Moscow received a surprise setback when Rosneft announced it planned to undertake joint operations in the Black Sea with BP's US rival ExxonMobil.
The moves came as the British oil group, which was at the centre of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill last spring, admitted it had shut down the UK's only onshore UK oil field, Wytch Farm, after a pipeline leak.
BP, whose shares dipped slightly on the developments, said today it was confident it could head off any big bust-up with the key TNK shareholders who belong to the Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR) consortium led by oligarch Mikhail Fridman.
"We see this as part of a process that we are working through," BP said. "We do not believe we are in breach of the shareholder agreement with AAR and continue to work with them to resolve this situation in a businesslike fashion."
The Russian shareholders from TNK argue that BP "appears to have closed its eyes to its obligations to TNK-BP", according to a 28-page first witness statement filed to the high court in London. The oligarchs have previously muscled out the BP-appointed chief executive of TNK-BP, Bob Dudley, who went on to become boss of the whole BP group.
AAR fears BP's deal with Rosneft would undermine TNK-BP's ability to compete for projects both in Russia and abroad, and would tilt BP's commitment toward Rosneft. The oligarchs are believed to want any deal with Rosneft to be undertaken by TNK-BP, not BP alone.
Industry analysts also say BP was taken aback by the new tie-up between Rosneft and Texas-based Exxon – the largest independent oil company in the world. That deal involves a $1bn (£629m) investment by Exxon to develop oil fields in the Black Sea and is the first initiative in Russia since the giant Sakhalin-1 field in the far east of the country more than a decade ago.
The tie-up was unveiled in Davos, with Igor Sechin, the Russian deputy prime minister who is also Rosneft's chairman, shaking hands with Rex Tillerson, the chief executive of Exxon, at the World Economic Forum.
ExxonMobil has in recent years clashed with the Russian authorities over the budget for the Pacific Sakhalin-1 project, while Tillerson's predecessor, Lee Raymond, tried to buy Mikhail Khodorkovsky's now-bankrupt Yukos, which has since fallen into the hands of Rosneft.
BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg was also present at the signing of the Rosneft deal in Davos. "We are being asked what has changed in Russia, why now all these deals are being signed," Svanberg said. "The regulations in the Russian oil and gas sector have changed considerably, offshore projects have been given preferences – in other words, normal conditions have been created."
Meanwhile, BP said it had closed Wytch Farm, near Poole in Dorset, in November after spilling "around one barrel" of oil, the equivalent of 150 litres, but hoped to have it back up and running as soon as the weekend.

"The Guardian"

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