Minority shareholders of the traded subsidiary of Russian oil producer TNK-BP Ltd. have filed to withdraw a $3 billion suit against BP PLC (BP), the shareholders' lawyer said Monday, as the British major and its partners close in on deals to sell Russia's No. 3 oil producer to state-controlled oil giant OAO Rosneft (ROSN.RS).
Minority shareholders of the traded subsidiary of Russian oil producer
TNK-BP Ltd. have filed to withdraw a $3 billion suit against BP PLC (BP), the
shareholders' lawyer said Monday, as the British major and its partners close
in on deals to sell Russia's No. 3 oil producer to state-controlled oil giant
OAO Rosneft (ROSN.RS).
Dmitry Chepurenko declined to say why the minority shareholders of TNK-BP
Holding were withdrawing the suit. A lawyer for BP declined immediate comment.
The termination of the suit over a failed Arctic exploration deal signed in
2011 comes after BP and its partner in TNK-BP, the Alfa Access Renova consortium
of Soviet-born tycoons, have both agreed to sell their stakes in the company to
Rosneft. The deal would transform Rosneft into the world's largest listed oil
producer.
Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin said last week that he expects to agree on the final
stage of the $55 billion TNK-BP acquisition this month and that the deal is now
irreversible.
A court in
Siberia
ruled in July that BP caused
damage to TNK-BP and the interests of its minority shareholders when it sought
an alliance last year with Rosneft in the Arctic exploration deal without
involving TNK-BP.
AAR blocked that alliance in separate legal proceedings in the
U.K.
The
consortium claimed successfully that the deal with Rosneft violated the TNK-BP
shareholder agreement, which states that both partners should pursue all
opportunities in
Russia
through the joint venture.
The July ruling focused on a meeting of TNK-BP's board on
March 12, 2011
, where the proposal was
raised that TNK-BP should replace BP in the alliance with Rosneft. The minority
shareholders argued that the four directors appointed to the board by BP voted
against the proposal on instructions from the
U.K.
company.
A Russian court had been scheduled to hear BP's appeal on Dec. 14.
BP also agreed last month to pay $325 million to
AAR
to
settle a separate arbitration case related to the aborted Arctic exploration
pact with Rosneft.
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mso-fareast-language:EL;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA'>South Sudan
must
first disarm former rebel allies, Sudan People's Liberation Army North, who are
operating in its oil producing states of
South Kordofan
and
Blue
Nile
.
The rebels fought alongside
South Sudan
during the two-decade civil war with
Sudan
but
the south says it has since ceased its cooperation with them. Analysts expect
little headway in the normalization of the two nation's relations as long as
the SPLM-N remains active. Mr. Benjamin said Monday that
South
Sudan
"has nothing" to do with the rebels.
South Sudan
expects to start shipping as many as 200,000
barrels-a-day once
Sudan
clears shipments. The landlocked nation is struggling under the burden of a
host of economic difficulties emanating from the closure of oil output. The
country retained 75% of the oil fields following its secession in July last
year but has to rely on pipelines that straddle through the north to export its
crude.
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