A Siberian
arbitration court said Wednesday it had rejected an appeal by minority
shareholders in BP PLC's Russian joint venture, OAO TNK-BP Holding, in a
$2.8 billion lawsuit, marking a small victory for the U.K. oil major.
The plaintiffs--led by Andrey Prokhorov who owns a 0.0000106% stake in
TNK-BP--claim two BP-appointed directors on the TNK-BP board unlawfully blocked
the company's efforts to promote itself rather than BP as a partner of
state-controlled oil company OAO Rosneft in an Arctic exploration alliance that
collapsed in May.
A court in the West Siberian city of Tyumen, where TNK-BP is registered, told
the plaintiffs in October they couldn't proceed with bringing more of the
company's shareholders on board for the complaint. They had sought more time to
bolster shareholder support for their lawsuit against the two BP executives on
the board of TNK-BP.
The Tyumen arbitration court Wednesday upheld the ruling. According to Russian
law, a lawsuit against board members can be heard only if the plaintiff
represents more than a 1% stake in the company.
BP has said the allegations were "baseless and legally
insupportable," arguing that no losses were incurred by TNK-BP and that
the BP's board members at TNK-BP acted in the best interest of the company.