Russia's Tyumen arbitration court on Friday ordered BP
PLC to pay just over 100 billion rubles ($3.1 billion) in damages to
TNK-BP, a ruling that the British company called a "corporate
attack."
The court ruling is to take effect in 30 days unless appealed,
in which case it would become effective at the end of the appeal
process, BP's
lawyer said.
"We will challenge today's ruling in accordance with the
procedure established by the law, and expect that the court of appeal
will adopt a reasonable and fair decision," BP
said in a statement. "We consider this claim as an attempted corporate
attack and believe that today's ruling should be cancelled."
Friday's ruling comes amid rising tensions between BP
and its partners in the 50-50 TNK-BP
venture, a group of Soviet-born billionaires known as AAR. Earlier this
week, BP
said it was in talks to sell its stake in TNK-BP
to OAO Rosneft, a move that analysts said could put pressure
on AAR, which is also bidding for the stake.
Friday's ruling could further complicate sales talks.
The decision "may somehow make AAR's position stronger because
BP
faces these legal issues but this is not the final word," said Ildar
Davletshin, an oil and gas analyst at Renaissance Capital.
AAR and TNK-BP
declined to comment. Rosneft had no immediate comment.
Lawyers for Mr. Prokhorov, who owns a very small stake in TNK-BP's
Russian-listed unit, have argued that BP
had done damage to the joint venture when last year it sought an
alliance with OAO Rosneft, the state oil company, without involving
TNK-BP.
BP's
Russian partners blocked that alliance in separate legal proceedings in
the U.K. and are seeking damages from BP
through arbitration.
BP
says the damage claims are groundless.
Although the payment ordered by the court is less than the
RUB288 billion original claim, "the decision is still a positive one,"
said Mr. Prokhorov's lawyer, Dmitry Chepurenko. "The court has
acknowledged that the truth is on our side."
In 2011, Rosneft and BP
almost bought out AAR's stake in TNK-BP
for around $32 billion, but the deal fell through, thwarting BP's
plans for a landmark Arctic oil exploration alliance with Rosneft and
poisoning already-tense relations with AAR.
In recent weeks, Russian officials have said they would not
like to see BP,
one of the biggest foreign investors in the oil sector, leave Russia
entirely. Some analysts have suggested a TNK-BP
sale could become the first step in a broader alliance between BP
and Rosneft, possibly along the lines of the Arctic deal discussed last
year.