Negotiations in progress between the British Petroleum and Russian government. The English oil giant is negotiating to surrender Rosneft – a company controlled by Moscow – its stake in TNK-BP joint venture. In return, the British are asking for several billion dollars and a 12,53% stake in the capital of the publicly-operated giant.
This was reported by the Russian economic newspaper Kommersant, also relaunched by the Financial Times, revealing that on Tuesday evening the Russian president Vladimir Putin has a surprise meeting with the CEO of BP, Robert Dudley, together with chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg. Also present at the meeting was the CEO of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, who has long been Putin's right-hand man in energy matters.
According to Kommersant, the two sides have discussed BP's sale of its 50% stake in the wealthy TNK-BP joint venture, which the Russians would pay for half in cash and half in treasury shares. Rosneft is already negotiating a 10-15 billion dollar loan with the banks to finance the agreement, writes the newspaper. The stake to be sold to BP would have a market value of 8,6 billion dollars.
The possible agreement with Rosneft would represent another twist in the turbulent and intricate affair relating to the presence of BP in Russia. In 2011, the British group had agreed a historic agreement with the Russian giant which provided for an exchange of shares between the two companies and the joint exploration of Russia's vast Arctic oil reserves. But the deal fell through due to opposition from TNK-BP's Russian partners. Rosneft had therefore allied with the Americans of ExxonMobil to complete the explorations.
ommersant points out that, with a share of 12,53%, BP would become Rosneft's second largest shareholder after the Russian state.
