Pressure from the Kremlin may push BP to cede control of Russian oil venture

LONDON: Pressure from the Kremlin on BP’s joint venture in Russia, TNK-BP, may before long lead the British oil company to cede control to either Rosneft or Gazprom, the Russian state-owned energy companies.

In March, the authorities raided the Moscow offices of BP and TNK-BP, one of the largest oil producers in Russia, which BP owns jointly with a group of Russian billionaires.


Officials accused a TNK-BP employee of industrial espionage and opened an investigation into tax evasion and possible environmental violations at the company.

Robert Dudley, the chief executive of TNK-BP, said Thursday that the raids and the arrest were one-off incidents, not a broad attack on the company that might foreshadow a full-blown expropriation by the Russian government.

But investors see disturbing similarities to the treatment that was meted out to Yukos, formerly the largest Russian oil producer, before it was bankrupted by a flood of back-tax claims and its assets were sold to state-controlled companies.

Reuters