BP Moscow Office Resumes Work After Raid; Documents Sealed

- BP Moscow Office Resumes Work After Raid; Documents Sealed

Monday, September 05, 2011
Dow Jones Newswires
MOSCOW
by William Mauldin

BP's Moscow office resumed work Monday following a raid last week by Russian court officials, a spokesman in Moscow for the U.K. oil giant said.

Documents gathered by the court bailiffs are currently sealed inside the office, and no papers have been removed, said the spokesman, Vladimir Buyanov.

BP said Friday that the search had been halted for 10 days and that it would challenge the operation in court.

Russian bailiffs on Wednesday and Thursday entered the BP office with special police armed with automatic weapons, as part of a search requested in a $3 billion lawsuit by investors in a traded unit of the oil company's Russian joint venture.

BP has called the lawsuit "absurd" and the search "unfounded" and directed at the wrong unit of the company.

The minority investors' attorneys said the search was carried out according to Russian law, regardless of which BP unit was searched.

The minority investors are seeking documents related to BP's Russia joint venture, TNK-BP Ltd., and to a failed Arctic deal between BP and state-controlled oil company Rosneft, as part of a lawsuit brought in Siberia's Tyumen Region Arbitration Court.

The minority investors, who live in Tyumen, have filed suits against BP and two of the U.K. company's executives at TNK-BP, claiming at least $3 billion in lost opportunities as a result of the failed Arctic deal with Rosneft.

The raid suggests BP's difficulties in Russia are likely to continue despite its efforts to put the fiasco of the Rosneft deal behind it, energy analysts said. BP initially disclosed the landmark alliance with Rosneft in January but found a deal blocked by opposition from its billionaire partners in TNK-BP Ltd.

Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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BP Moscow Office Raided As Pressure In Russia Rises

- BP Moscow Office Raided As Pressure In Russia Rises

Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Dow Jones Newswires
MOSCOW
by William Mauldin, Alexander Kolyandr & James Herron

Russian court officials Wednesday raided the Moscow office of BP in the latest setback for BP in Russia following the collapse of a proposed $16 billion share-swap and Arctic oil exploration deal with state-controlled Rosneft.

The raid comes only a day after Rosneft signed a deal with ExxonMobil to explore the same offshore Arctic fields and work together in the U.S. and other locations.

Russian bailiffs entered BP's Moscow office to examine documents requested in a $3 billion lawsuit filed by Siberia-based minority shareholders in BP's exchange-listed Russian joint venture, TNK-BP Holding, BP spokesman Vladimir Buyanov said.

BP's London office said there are "no legitimate grounds for such a raid" and that the "entity raided has no connection with the process in Tyumen," Siberia, said a BP London spokeswoman. The documents seized by bailiffs "are confidential and have no connection with any shareholder issues," she said.

BP shares were flat Wednesday at 397 pence at 1123 GMT, slightly underperforming the broader U.K index. Some analysts said the Exxon-Rosneft deal was a big negative for the company, but others said the disappointing demise of the venture was already priced into the shares.

The escalating tensions are reminiscent of 2008, when BP fought a bitter battle in TNK-BP over strategic control of the venture that spawned raids by immigration officials and harmed relations between Russia and the U.K.

Dmitry Chepurenko, a lawyer representing TNK-BP minority shareholders, said BP Exploration Operating Company Ltd. didn't comply with a court order to provide documents connected with the abortive BP-Rosneft partnership. Thus the court in Tyumen, where the minority shareholders are based, Monday ordered bailiffs to retrieve the documents from BP Exploration Operating Company Ltd., Chepurenko said in a statement.

BP holds its TNK-BP stake through a unit based outside of Russia, although the staff who work with BP work out of its Russian office, which is also home to BP Exploration Operating Company Ltd. unit, BP's Buyanov said.

Most of BP's approximately 120 Moscow employees left work Wednesday as requested by the bailiffs, leaving mainly legal staff and security to work with the officials, Buyanov added. BP Russia chief Jeremy Huck also left the office and currently remains in Russia, the spokesman said.

TNK-BP minority shareholders are seeking RUB87 billion ($3 billion) from BP due to alleged losses stemming from BP's failed tie-up with Rosneft.

The powerful Alfa-Access-Renova consortium of Soviet-born businessmen successfully blocked the BP-Rosneft deal using a clause in the TNK-BP Ltd shareholder agreement.

Lawyers for the TNK-BP minority shareholders, who live in Tyumen, where TNK-BP Holding is based, said they have no connection with the consortium of billionaires, known as AAR.

BP in 2008 fought a losing battle with AAR for control of TNK-BP, then led by current BP Chief Executive Robert Dudley. The conflict included court battles in Tyumen as well as the removal of BP staff from Russia. The acrimonious dispute was resolved only when BP ceded greater influence over the joint venture to its Russian partners and Dudley resigned as TNK-BP CEO.

In a separate case from the Tyumen arbitration, AAR this month said it has asked a Stockholm arbitration panel to issue a final ruling on whether BP breached the TNK-BP shareholder agreement.

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Moscow scolds Bulgaria over oil pipeline

Moscow scolds Bulgaria over oil pipeline
March. 22, 2011 at 8:25 AM

MOSCOW, March 22 (UPI) -- The Bulgarian government is in part to blame for all-but shutting down plans for the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, a Russian energy executive said.

Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said in February that Moscow was interested in the project but had to suspend most of the work because of delays from Sofia.

Bulgaria in 2007 signed an agreement with Russia and Greece to build the 174-mile oil pipeline to bypass crowded waterways near Turkey by crossing an overland route to the Aegean Sea.

Mikhail Barkov, a vice president at Russian pipeline company Transneft, was quoted by Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti as saying the project would be scaled down if Sofia doesn't take it seriously.

"If the Bulgarian side fails to treat the Burgas-Alexandroupolis positively, and does not adopt a positive environmental assessment for the oil pipeline, there will be a decision to put the company into a hibernation mode," he said.

Moscow claims the Bulgarian government owes about $10.3 million to the project consortium.

Bulgarian officials brushed off past threats from Moscow, however, saying the rhetoric was intended more as a negotiation tactic than as a statement of intent.

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