Industry Focus
Oil & Gas
TNK-BP shareholders Alfa, Access, Renova (AAR) and BP have agreed a number of decisions regarding senior management roles at TNK-BP. It is expected that these decisions will be formally approved by the Board of Directors and implemented before the close of the current year. The decisions reflect the shared commitment of the joint-venture partners to the continued success and development of TNK-BP.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych on Saturday held an informal meeting to discuss ways to settle the long-running deadlock over contracted terms for Russian gas sold to Ukraine.
Yanukovych met with Medvedev at the Russian president's personal residence Zavidovo outside the Russian capital. The meeting was closed for journalists. The both politicians said they were ready to take steps to appease the energy dispute.
Rosneft has pulled out of its strategic alliance with BP and will look for new partners in Arctic oil exploration, Interfax quoted a source close to the state-held company as saying Tuesday.
Talks between BP, Rosneft and AAR, the consortium of BP’s Russian partners in TNK-BP have failed to reach agreement, a source close to the matter said on Tuesday, after a month-long extension granted by Rosneft to BP to implement a share-swap agreement expired at midnight.
The arbitral panel on the Russian AAR consortium's dispute with BP over its proposed deal with Rosneft for a share swap and joint Arctic expoloration issued a consent order onn Friday permitting BP and the Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR) consortium to assign the Arctic opportunity to TNK-BP, subject to Rosneft consent.
Observers say it will be a complicated deal as TNK-BP has not the experience and track record in deep water exploration that Rosnfet sought from BP in concluding the original deal. The technical expertise would have to be provided by BP to TNK to enable them to undertake the obligations Rosnfet sought. The guarantees BP will require from TNK-BP will be exacting given the dispute two years ago with AAR over work permits and conditions for BP engineers contracted to TNK-BP.
BP announced today that it has agreed with Rosneft to extend the deadline for completing the share swap agreement (previously announced on 14 January) to 16 May 2011. The agreement between the two companies followed the 8 April decision of the arbitral tribunal to allow them to discuss extension of the deadline. This means that the share swap agreement will now not terminate on 14 April 2011.
By Liam Halligan
From The Telegraph
First, a disclaimer. I have a "day-job". As the strap at the bottom of this column states every week, I'm chief economist at a company called Prosperity Capital Management.
PCM specialises in portfolio investments, buying listed stocks and shares in emerging markets, particularly Russia. We're sizeable players – with $4.5bn under management, having been in business since 1996.
EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said on Thursday that a new Russian-Polish gas deal was in line with EU legislation. Russia and Poland ended last week a four-year impasse on energy supplies by signing new gas supply and transit agreements. Moscow promised Warsaw discounts if it bought more gas, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said last Friday following a meeting with his Polish counterpart, Waldemar Pawlak.