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TNK-BP

Feud between BP and its Russian partners in TNK-BP

 

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A Russian CEO Fined on Labor

August 9, 2008; Page B3

Anglo-Russian oil joint-venture TNK-BP on Friday said a Moscow court fined its Chief Executive Robert Dudley 500 rubles ($21) for violations of Russia’s labor law. The Federal Labor and Employment Service asked the court to look into a number of violations relating to labor protection and the use of a foreign work force. The ruling is the latest episode in the battle for control of the company between TNK-BP’s 50:50 shareholders, U.K. oil major BP PLC and a group of Russian tycoons. read more

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Oil: TNK-BP’s credit rating may be cut over feud, warns Fitch

TNK-BP's debt rating could be cut, the credit-rating agency Fitch warned yesterday, citing the ongoing feud between the oil company and its Russian partners.

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TNK-BP boss fined £10 as row rumbles on

In recent months, TNK-BP's offices have been raided by police and foreign staff have had visas denied. The company has been hit by back-tax claims and an obscure investment company started legal action against the joint venture.

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TNK-BP’s Robert Dudley escapes three-year Russia ban and fined £10

Robert Dudley, chief executive of TNK-BP, BP’s troubled Russian 50-50 joint venture, escaped a possible three-year ban from doing his job today despite a Moscow court ruling he had broken the Russian labour code.

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S&P Warns of Fallout From TNK-BP Dispute

Standard & Poor's became the second credit-rating firm in a week to warn that the shareholder dispute at TNK-BP Ltd. is clouding the Russian oil company's prospects...

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S&P downgrades TNK-BP amid exit

Standard and Poor's has become the second international ratings agency in two days to take action against BP's Russian oil joint venture, TNK-BP, after its chief financial officer quit blaming an escalating shareholder row

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China, India Vie for Russian Oil

Russia's oil and gas fields have proved treacherous for other foreign investors. When Royal Dutch Shell PLC announced that costs at the Sakhalin-2 project had nearly doubled, Russian environmental regulators bombarded it with complaints until Shell sold a majority stake in the project to a Kremlin-run gas company in 2006.

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BP Venture In Russia Hit as CFO Steps Down

However, a person close to BP said it looked bad for the London-based oil major. "This is another step in the corporate takeover," he said. "They've got the CEO to leave the country, they've got the 148 BP specialists out, and now they've got the CFO to resign."

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Fight for control of BP-TNK escalates

James Owen’s resignation comes 10 days after Robert Dudley, TNK-BP’s chief executive, left Russia citing a campaign of harassment. It will leave only three members of the group’s original five-member core executive committee in Russia.

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Oil: BP loses grip on troubled Russian venture as head of finance quits

The company has spent the past year fighting off claims from the tax, environmental and immigration authorities in what has been seen by some industry specialists as a rerun of the kind of problems that afflicted Shell until it sold part of its shareholding in Sakhalin to state-owned Gazprom.

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Positive omens combine for courtship of Imperial Energy

The British group was accused of overstating its reserves to boost its share price, provoking fears that it could face the same renationalisation moves as Shell’s natural gas venture in Sakhalin and BP’s Kovykta programme.

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Shell courts Russia with asset swap plan

Shell declined to comment, but a spokesman said the company had "learned our lesson in Russia" after the forced sale of half its stake in the $22bn Sakhalin-II oil and liquefied natural gas field, off Russia's east coast, in 2006 to state-owned Gazprom.

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Russia’s Medvedev warns officials against ‘terrifying’ businesses

In an address to Russian ministers yesterday, Mr Medvedev said "law enforcement and state institutions should stop terrifying business" - a comment widely interpreted as a response to the escalating TNK-BP battle.

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Kremlin’s heavy hand triggers foreign exodus

"The market is panicking and foreign investors are pulling out of equities," said Michael Ganske, a Russia expert at Commerzbank. "People fear that the rule of law is breaking down...

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TNK-BP board to review venture’s spending plans

The board of BP's Russian oil joint venture, TNK-BP, will review the operation's capital spending plans, one of the key points of dispute in the bitter power struggle between the UK company and its billionaire partners.

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BP to Fight for Control of Venture

BP PLC will use "all legal means" at its disposal to fight its partners in TNK-BP Ltd., the U.K.-based company's chief executive said Tuesday, ratcheting up the tension in a dispute for control of the Anglo-Russian joint venture.

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BP hits a record but warns of Russia risk

Colin Smith, analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort, said BP had a superior short-term growth outlook than Shell.

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Exercise caution in Russia, Tony Hayward warns investors

Speaking yesterday, during a press conference to announce BP's profit figures, Mr Hayward said: "Russia is quite a challenging place to do business."

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Where next for TNK-BP?

Gazprom seems the most obvious buyer. However, the state-controlled gas giant has huge investment ahead. Its willingness to spend on acquiring a stake in TNK-BP is uncertain - unless it could be tempted at a bargain price

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Russia’s Crony Statism

By now, the jilted investor in Russia is a bear-bites-man story. No one who puts serious cash in Vladimir Putin's realm, not least in its flush gas and oil fields, can be surprised to find himself fleeced, run out of town, jailed in a Siberian gulag or worse.

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Battle for TNK-BP turns into all-out war

Fast forward almost five years, and the two sides are at war, one which is both highly public and personal.

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Russians claim control of TNK-BP as court battle looms

The Russian shareholders at war with BP claim to have seized majority control of the core board of joint venture TNK-BP.

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BP chief Tony Hayward takes tough line against Russian partners

Times Online July 26, 2008

BP chief Tony Hayward takes tough line against Russian partners

BP threw down the gauntlet to its Russian partners yesterday, saying that the group would not be forced out of its troubled joint venture.

“We intend to hold our ground and we are not going to be intimidated,” Tony Hayward, the chief executive of BP said in an interview with The Times.

But despite the rhetoric, Robert Dudley, TNK-BP’s American chief executive, remains in hiding outside Russia as speculation grows that his abrupt departure was triggered by fears of imminent arrest. Mr Hayward said that he had been forced to leave because of a refusal by the Russian authorities to grant him a visa and investigations by state security agents. read more

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TNK-BP row ‘is bad for Russia’ says British Foreign Office

Investors began to bail out of Russian-focused shares in London as concerns grew about the ability of Western companies to do business in the country.

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Paying the price for Russia’s ‘loveable rogues’

Russian stocks are in freefall, spooked by threats of anti-trust inquiries by Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, falling oil prices and the chicanery over TNK-BP.

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The retreat from Moscow

"ExxonMobil is the only one that could really pull it off but it is more logical for BP to do a merger of equals with Shell with Tony Hayward running both companies," Gheit added.

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Head of BP Venture, Citing Harassment, Leaves Russia

People close to BP say TNK-BP's troubles stem from a Kremlin drive to transfer control of the company to a state entity like OAO Gazprom, leaving BP as a minority partner.

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BP refuses to be intimidated by ‘strong-arm tactics’

Tony Hayward has a clear message for the Russian partners in TNK-BP, repeated several times in a conversation with the Financial Times last night: "We are not going to be intimidated by strong-arm tactics.

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TNK-BP chief is ‘forced out’ of Russia

The beleaguered chief executive of BP's Russian oil joint venture abruptly left the country yesterday, blaming mounting uncertainties over his visa and "sustained harassment".

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Hayward must urgently address the Russian farce, even if it means selling

Has the time come for BP to cut its losses, quit Russia altogether...

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In case you’d missed it, Britain is now at war with Russia.

The row between BP and AAR, its Russian partners, has dramatically escalated with the joint venture's chief executive fleeing Russia and going into hiding.

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Bill Browder accuses Russian corporate raiders of $230m fraud

Mr Browder's allegations of institutional corruption strike at the heart of Russia's corporate minefield and further expose the difficulties of conducting business in a country already under fire for its treatment of multinational oil giants Royal Dutch Shell and BP.

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TNK-BP: something rotten in the state of Russia

With its tail between its legs, Britain's biggest company is being all but chased out of Russia. During the five years since BP entered into the TNK-BP joint venture, the company has been at pains to insist its Russian venture was unlike those that suffered official harassment, such as Shell and ExxonMobil. It was suggested that BP had the President's ear and his blessing. Perhaps it did, then.

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Russians issue legal threat to TNK- BP’s Robert Dudley

BP has been under siege in Russia for months, with police raids on its Moscow office, problems getting visas for staff seconded to TNK-BP, and legal action from a minority investor. On Wednesday, the UK company withdrew its remaining 60 engineers.

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BP Losing 23% of Production Looms as Russians Assail Investment

Nothing will happen to TNK-BP without the say-so of the Kremlin,'' says Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib Financial Corp., a Moscow-based brokerage. ``The endgame is clear with Putin's government having set up the model of state control.''

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The Bitter Battle To Lead TNK-BP

Ultimately, these people say, the Kremlin is seeking to gain control over the venture for a state company like OAO Gazprom, likely leaving BP as a minority partner.

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BP withdraws remaining TNK-BP specialists

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, reiterated that view on Tuesday but added “we can only hope that such decisions by BP do not negatively impact the activity of the company”.

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BP withdraws last of seconded staff from Russia

BP has conceded a fresh defeat in its struggle for control of TNK-BP, its Russian joint venture...

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TNK-BP chief in contract pledge

Over the past two months TNK-BP's operations have all but ground to a halt after a spate of suspicious tax, labour and police inspections. BP's 150 western staff have also experienced difficulties renewing their visas

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The Russia-Venezuela Alliance: Using Energy for Geopolitical Advantage

When Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez touches down in Moscow on July 22 to meet with the duumvirate of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, he will be ready for more than the usual diplomatic photo-op. This odd trio will be well-positioned to plan substantial international mischief.

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Natural Resources: Monday July 21, 2008

Royal Dutch Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil group, has agreed to sell its stake in the £2.5 billion London Array, the world’s largest offshore wind farm, to E.ON and Dong Energy, its former partners.

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BP bosses block Russia dividend

"This is BP playing hardball and hitting the Russians where it hurts."

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Russian roulette as oiligarchs battle over TNK

After the destruction of Yukos and marginalisation of Royal Dutch Shell at the Sakhalin gas field, TNK is next on the list.

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BP counts cost of Russian dispute

...it is not surprising that there is talk among some investors that BP should just exit Russia by the least painful route it can find.

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In Dispute With BP, Kremlin’s Hand Is Seen

The Kremlin has been methodically reasserting control over the oil industry since effectively renationalizing the Yukos oil company from private owners just as oil prices began to spike in 2004. Subsequently, the Anglo-Dutch company Shell, the Russian company Russneft and TNK-BP have all been compelled to sell assets or renegotiate deals.

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BP retains law firm for Russia venture fight

Oil giant BP has begun marshalling its defences in the battle for control of TNK-BP by retaining the services of a leading Russian law firm.

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Oil: Managers file lawsuit against head of BP’s Russia venture

ert Dudley, the chief executive of BP's joint venture in Russia, said yesterday the dispute with local shareholders was "tearing the company apart"..

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Russia may refuse visa for TNK-BP’s chief Dudley

BP and its Russian oligarch partners in TNK-BP were at daggers drawn again yesterday over the status of Robert Dudley, the joint venture's chief executive.

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TNK-BP tie-up faces ‘meltdown’, says chief

Relations between the British and Russian shareholders in TNK-BP appeared in meltdown last night as its chief executive spoke of the feuding, claiming it will tear the company apart.

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Continental Shift: BP Is Latest Gas Player

BP's announcement comes three days after rival Royal Dutch Shell PLC announced a C$5.9 billion (about $6 billion) takeover bid for Canadian natural-gas producer Duvernay Oil Corp. Shell also has partnered with EnCana Corp. to enter what has become the hottest new unconventional play, the Haynesville Shale in east Texas and Louisiana.

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