Reuters 21 September 2012
SOCHI, Russia, Sept 21 (Reuters) – British oil company BP wants to buy a stake in Russian state-controlled peer Rosneft, adding a new dimension to a long-running struggle for control of a big chunk of the country’s oil production.
BP chief executive Bob Dudley and chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg put the Rosneft proposal to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin said on Friday.
The deal would see Rosneft take BP’s stake in TNK-BP – a $60 billion joint venture with Russian oligarchs that BP wants to exit. Last year, TNK-BP blocked a deal that would have seen BP and Rosneft explore for oil in the arctic.
“We are very pleased by this offer. It allows us to fulfil the tenets of cutting the state’s stake (in Rosneft), and we are working firmly toward this,” said Sechin, a close ally of Putin.
A BP spokesman said: “BP is considering further investment in Russia regardless of who we sell our stake to … we would be interested in investing some of the proceeds in buying shares in Rosneft”, adding that any purchase depended on a sale of its TNK-BP stake going through.
BREAKING UP
BP is seeking to exit its troubled but lucrative investment in TNK-BP, Russia’s third-largest oil company, which it formed nearly a decade ago with four tycoons – Len Blavatnik, Mikhail Fridman, German Khan and Viktor Vekselberg – to tap the country’s vast energy reserves.