In my March 4 posting, I wrote that BP was about to be rolled by Russia again. On Friday, the debacle took place.
BP’s share swap deal with Russia’s national oil company Rosneft was supposed to give it a half interest in the development of rich Arctic offshore reserves. BP’s billionaire partners in its ongoing TNK-BP venture objected. BP had signed an exclusive agreement with them, and an arbitration court agreed. To go along, the billionaire partners demanded half of BP’s half. BP vetoed that offer at a TNK-BP board meeting in early March. BP had expected Putin to take care of the billionaires’ objections. He did not. Putting Khodorkovsky in jail was one thing, but the TNK billionaires are his friends.
