UPDATE: Russia TNK-BP Holders Could Lose Iraqi Kurd License
Monday June 30th, 2008 / 23h54
(Updates to add new details, developments) By Spencer Swartz and Benoit Faucon Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES MADRID -(Dow Jones)- The consortium of Russian shareholders behind TNK-BP Holding (TNBP.RS) are at risk of losing their oil contract in northern Iraq, a move that would likely further aggravate tensions between the shareholders and BP PLC (BP). If the consortium were to lose the contract, which was signed in November 2007, it could place the British oil giant in a pickle because of its ambitions to further explore for hydrocarbons in Russia. "There is concern about what TNK-BP's intent is. We signed the contract believing that TNK-BP was behind the contract," Kurdish oil minister Ashti Hawrami said in an interview here late Sunday. "Without TNK-BP behind the contract there is a risk the contract may not be valid," he said. The autonomous Kurdish government has signed around 20 oil deals with foreign oil companies over the past year or so. However, Alexey Kousmichoff, who in charge of the Iraqi Kurdish venture for the Russian shareholders, said he had met Hawrami in Madrid Monday and had a positive exchange with him. Kousmichoff said he reassured the minister by saying TNK-BP is contracted to provide technical support to the Kurdish project. BP's refusal to let TNK-BP join the Kurdish project as a shareholder partly triggered a dispute between the British oil giant and its partners in the Russian oil and gas joint-venture. In recent weeks, tensions between BP and its Russian billionaire partners in the joint Russian oil and gas venture, TNK-BP, have escalated into a full-fledged dispute with the Russian side saying BP frustrates the venture's international plans. Kousmichoff, who is also an executive at TNK-BP shareholder Alfa Group, said Alfa wanted to leverage the knowledge it had gained on Iraq prior to the merger of its oil assets into the joint venture with BP. He said BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward and Bob Dudley, TNK-BP's chief executive, hadn't opposed the deal when first informed of TNK-BP's Iraqi considerations. But after receiving advice from the U.S. State Department, BP refused to let TNK-BP enter Iraqi Kurdistan. BP feared that involvement in the region would anger the Iraqi central government and perhaps torpedo its hopes of gaining a foothold in southern Iraq, where most of the country's proven oil reserves - the third biggest in the world - are located. BP, along with a handful of other big oil companies, are set to sign service contracts this week. Because of BP's reluctance to publicly back a deal with the Kurds, the Russian shareholders' consortium, Alfa-Access-Renova, decided to invest in Kurdistan through their own independent venture, Norbest. However, people familiar with the matter said BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward committed in November last year to provide technical assistance to the project through TNK-BP if needed. At the time, Hayward pledged "to provide whatever technical assistance is necessary, either via BP or TNK-BP, to this project as long as BP was not party to the transaction," a person familiar with talks told Dow Jones Newswires. Kousmichoff said Norbest does not only have TNK-BP's technical support but has also hired about 10 staff from TNK-BP. Going forward, Norbest wants to expand to Syria and Iran and create synergies with its Kurdish assets, he said. In addition, it wants to participate in consolidation among Kurdish Iraqi players, he added. BP declined to comment. -By Spencer Swartz and Benoit Faucon, Dow Jones7 Newswires; spencer.swartz@dowjones.com; +44 (0)207 842 9357 Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=3lGBWWahUFfXD%2FiXfjAf1g%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
BP figure parmi les 1ers groupes pétroliers mondiaux. Le CA par activité se répartit comme suit : - raffinage et distribution (87,5%) : 7,5 millions...
