The BP and Rosneft presidents met for discussions in Moscow at Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's invitation on Friday, despite a court order banning them from doing so, local business newspapers said on Monday.
In January, BP and Rosneft signed a $16 billion share swap deal and an agreement to develop the hydrocarbon resources in the Russian Arctic together. The deal was supported by Deputy Prime Minister and close Putin ally Igor Sechin, but a London court imposed an injunction on the deals following a suit from AAR, the local shareholders in BP's Russian venture, TNK-BP.
Vedomosti and Kommersant dailies said the court also prohibited official negotiations on the matters between the companies.
BP CEO Robert Dudley and Rosneft boss Eduard Khudainatov met at a Supervisory Council meeting of the Russian Geographical society in Moscow on Friday, at the invitation of Putin.
"Luckily, Dudley and Khudainatov were seated together at the meeting and they managed to talk," a source close to Khudainatov told Vedomosti.
A source close to BP said an interpreter was seated next to them by a lucky accident.
The paper's sources say Dudley's visit to the Russian Geographical Society was a good chance to discuss the situation with AAR without breaking the law.
Dudley also had a two-minute meeting with Putin. "They talked business," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Kommersant.
Dudley went straight back to London after the Russian Geographical Society meeting, Vedomosti said.
Dudley has said he did not meet with AAR representatives.