Talks between BP PLC's (BP) Russian joint venture TNK-BP Holdings (TNBP.RS) and OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) over the Kovykta gas field have resumed, but are narrowly focused on ownership of the field, not the lapsed memorandum for international cooperation between the companies, a spokesman for BP said Monday.
According to press reports Friday, Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller said he expects an agreement on Kovykta to be reached within weeks. The BP spokesman declined to comment on the timetable of the talks, which are being held directly between TNK-BP and Gazprom.
TNK-BP and Gazprom both declined to comment on the negotiations.
BP originally agreed in 2007 to sell its stake in the massive Kovykta field in Russia's far east to Gazprom for about $900 million and form a $3 billion international strategic alliance with the Russian gas monopoly. There was a hiatus in the talks over the summer as BP became embroiled in a dispute with its Russian partners in TNK-BP over governance and strategy, the BP spokesman said, and the agreement lapsed. Many of those differences were resolved in an agreement earlier this month.
BP remains supportive of the original agreement over the Kovykta field, but elements of the strategic alliance will have to be revisited, the spokesman said.