UPDATE 1-TNK-BP board member quits over shareholders’ row
(Adds background, details)
MOSCOW, May 30 (Reuters) – A board member at Russian oil firm TNK-BP TNBPI.RTS, half owned by BP (BP.L:Quote, Profile, Research) and a group of Russian tycoons, has resigned citing a deepening row between the shareholders, sources said on Friday.
Independent director Jean-Luc Vermeulen’s resignation on Thursday dealt another blow to the embattled firm, which is Russia’s third-largest.
“Discussions that I had tonight with several advisers led me to the conclusion that I was wrong in believing I could still help with settling the dispute between TNK-BP shareholders,” one source quoted Vermeulen as telling board members in a letter. TNK-BP failed to hold a board meeting in Cyprus on Thursday after BP rejected a demand from the Russian shareholders to replace TNK-BP long-serving Chief Executive Robert Dudley.
Earlier this week both the Russian side and BP publicly aired differences over strategy at the company.
Many analysts say differences emerged after months of intense Kremlin pressure on TNK-BP as neither the Russian owners nor BP are prepared to sell out to a Russian state-controlled company, such as gas giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research).
The Russian shareholders, Viktor Vekselberg, Mikhail Fridman and Len Blavatnik, acting through three investment vehicles known collectively as Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR), did however meet BP CEO Tony Hayward in Cyprus to talk strategy, BP said.
The Russian shareholders had said in a joint statement they wanted to expand abroad even if foreign acquisitions competed with existing BP businesses, and that they wanted a better balance between Russian and foreign staff.
BP and the Russian billionaires each have five representatives on the 10-seat board of TNK-BP.
Vermeulen, a career oil man since 1970, has worked at French oil firms Elf Aquitaine, TotalFina and Total (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research). He was sitting on TNK-BP’s board as an independent director within the Russian quota.
Vermeulen’s resignation comes on top of other problems at TNK-BP, which last year was forced to cede control of a major Siberian gas project to Gazprom.
Mounting state pressure on the firm, including the arrest of an employee on an industrial espionage charge, a raid on its Moscow offices and a court injunction to stop it using BP specialists, are signs the time to sell is approaching, analysts say.
(Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov, writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman; editing by Sue Thomas)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
RELATED BLOG POSTS
Sphere
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
