U.K. energy group BP PLC (BP) faced new demands Monday to release emails about a failed Arctic oil alliance with Russian group Rosneft (ROSN.RS) that has led to a $12.5-billion shareholder suit.
U.K.
energy group BP PLC (BP) faced new demands Monday to release emails about a
failed Arctic oil alliance with Russian group Rosneft (ROSN.RS) that has led to
a $12.5-billion shareholder suit.
The controversial claim from a tiny stakeholder was revived by a Siberian court
last month after BP had announced receiving offers for its half of the troubled
TNK-BP joint venture it now runs with four Soviet-born tycoons.
The plaintiff's lead attorney said a federal commercial court in
Tyumen
adjourned hearings Monday, until July 7, to consider a request from shareholder
Andrei Prokhorov for access to BP's internal records on the Rosneft tie-up.
"We have filed the corresponding request but the court is yet to review
it," Prokhorov's attorney Dmitry Chepurenko told AFP. "This is one of
the questions that should be settled by the next hearing."
BP views the court hearings as a part of the Russians' strategy to put added
pressure on it to hand over full operations of the highly-lucrative 50:50 joint
venture.
The Siberian suit revolves around TNK-BP's inability last year to play a role
in a $16-billion Rosneft-BP tie-up that the billionaires managed to block
through European courts. The deal eventually went to the U.S. super-major
ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM), while BP has since been shut out of Rosneft's new
Arctic signings and been stymied by a mutiny on the TNK-BP board.
The 409 billion ruble ($12.5 billion) suit stems from two claims filed by a
previously unknown investor in the TNK-BP holding company, against BP and its
chief executives in
Russia
.
The investor and his co-sponsors on a second suit claim a massive unrealized
profit from BP's decision to seek the Rosneft venture without TNK-BP's
involvement, in contravention of the joint venture's shareholder rules.
Prokhorov wants the documents to show that BP went into the Rosneft alliance
knowing that it broke TNK-BP rules requiring it to offer the joint venture
first rights to all its dealings in
Russia
and
Ukraine
.
Court bailiffs in
Moscow
had
seized the same documents in August shortly after the initial claim against BP
had been filed.
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