The Russian government will welcome outgoing BP CEO Tony Hayward to any new post in the Russian-British TNK-BP joint venture, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said on Wednesday. "The format of work can be different," Sechin said, adding Hayward will be welcome in any post he may be appointed to.

Bonhomie for Dudley, hints of a job for Hayward in Moscow

By John Bonar

"And now Mr Dudley is back!" Russia's energy czar, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin exclaimed with a laugh when he met

BP Plc's new Chief Executive Robert Dudley and his predecessor Tony Hayward on Wednesday. The trio met in the Moscow headquarters of Rosneft, Russia's top  oil producer where Sechin is chairman. Despite the acrid smoke fog blanketing Moscow from peat fires smouldering in the surrounding region the three men appeared in good spirits and joked with each other.

The Return of the Prodigal Oilman

Asia’s markets are again following yesterday’s trend in the US markets. The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index is off 0.7% with the Nikkei down 2.2%. That is because the yen is higher (at 85.45 to the dollar) and investors are worried about the loss of export competitiveness. China equities are also lower; the CSI is off 0.9%, on fears of possible Central Bank tightening in the autumn. The dollar-euro rate is at $1.3212, slightly off from yesterday’s closing level of $1.3229, and gold is edging higher. It last traded at $1,195.1 per ounce. A small reaction to the nervousness about global growth that has come from the disappointing manufacturing reports this week. Copper if off 0.5% after yesterday’s 1.1% decline.

TNK-BP Reports  21% Increase in Net Income and continuing production growth in First Half 2010

TNK-BP today reported its results for the six months ended June 30th 2010 with impressive results. Oil and gas production in 1H 2010 increased by 4.5% to 1.743 million boe/d compared to 1H 2009 (excluding Slavneft). Production in 2Q increased by 0.7% on the previous quarter, marking 11 consecutive quarters of production growth.

TNK-BP establishes Council to interact with suppliers

To improve the system of relationships with contractors and make the activities of the company more transparent, the management of TNK-BP decided to create a Council for interaction with suppliers and contractors. TNK-BP is one of the major players on the Russian market of goods and services with an annual contracting budget of approximately 180 billion rubles. The council will be established at the convention of contractors of the company, which will be held in late September 2010.

 

The main goals of the council will be creation of forums for direct dialogs of TNK-BP with suppliers and contractors, improvement of the contracting efficiency, explanation of the interaction principles and practice to contractors, and detection and prevention of violations of these principles and rules.

The council will consist of a corporate council, regional councils, and grievance commissions. German Khan, Executive Director of TNK-BP, will take the position of corporate council chairman.

Between July 19 and August 9, the company website will be providing a questionnaire for company contractors, most of which will participate in the convention of TNK-BP suppliers and contractors.

“TNK-BP was always committed to high standards of business conduct, which imply development of competition, improvement of the quality of product, and integration of innovative technologies. Now TNK-BP is starting a new three-year stage of business planning, which requires development of the existing standards and procedures. We are going to improve our interaction with contractors and hope for openness, trust and professionalism from our suppliers and contractors,” said German Khan.

 

Time for Dudley to “kick ass”

Why BP had insisted up until now of fielding Tony Hayward, the boyishly charming CEO with a mop of curly hair as their front line of defense against the public tsunami of American hostility and criticism in the wake of the Maconda oil well explosion is beyond me. The Americans misunderstood Hayward’s flat Thames Valley vowels for privileged upper class. Well now they get one of their own to play with.

Perfect for the Gulf of Mexico disaster is Mississippian Robert Dudley, whom BP inherited from its merger with Amoco a decade ago. The BP Managing Director is used to playing hard ball as the former Chief Executive of the BP-TNK Russian joint venture where he was able to hone his management and negotiating skills with the likes of Mikhail Fridman (Alfa Group), Leonard Blavatnik (Access Industries) and Viktor Vekselberg (Renova) in a protracted dispute that ended with him resigning, 88 seconded BP employees being denied visas to Russia and TNK-BP starting to expand its operations outside the confines of Russia where BP would have liked to keep it.

The technical BP response is now in motion with 2/3 of the escaping oil now being captured, the relief wells advancing on the spill ahead of schedule, a (expensive) truce with President Barack Obama agreed and the US Congress stonewalled by a resolute Hayward now it is time for the tall Mississippian Dudley to "kick ass" to use that phrase coined by President Obama on June 8th.

In case you don’t know him, Dudley was that tall, light-haired fellow trailing behind BP Chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg and Hayward after the White House meeting.

I predict Dudley’s first job will be to kick the ass of Anadarko Petroleum, the Texas oil company that owns 25 percent of BP’s Macondo oil field concession, into line.

The independent oil producer has just publicly slammed its partner as "reckless" and, in a statement, said "the mounting evidence clearly demonstrates that this tragedy was preventable."

It is a back-stabbing move by the Texan independent, which is the largest deepwater oil producer in the Gulf, clearly aimed at escaping contributing 25% to the $20bn compensation fund to which BP agreed to with President Obama.

Anadarco said, BP should be on the hook for 100 percent of the damages.

Anadarco said it was "shocked" to learn that BP operated unsafely and that it didn't monitor and react to warning signs as its Macondo well was drilled 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana.

Anadarko's position does not align with that of US Representative Edward Markey, who yesterday insisted that both the Texas company and Mitsui & Co., which owns a 10 percent stake in the gushing Gulf well, need to pony up some cash to help pay a share of claims.

"They cannot escape responsibility," Markey, speaking of BP's partners, told Bloomberg in an interview to be broadcast this weekend.

BP has agreed to fund a $20 billion escrow fund over four years to compensate victims of the disaster and to help pay for the clean-up costs.

Since the April 20 blowout Anadarko has kept quiet. It had its own men aboard the Deepwater Horizon and has had access to their on-site reports and de-briefing. The sudden pinpointing of blame onto BP when the investigations into the cause of the disaster are not yet complete is just a clear tactic to avoid contributing to the victim fund. Dudley should kick it into touch.