InterAksyon.com means BUSINESS
MOSCOW - A Siberian court on Friday piled more legal pressure on BP by ordering the British group to pay $3.1 billion in damages for its attempted Arctic oil exploration tie-up with the state giant Rosneft.
The ruling comes as the British group holds direct negotiation with Rosneft for Russia's largest oil firm to buy out the British firm's stake in the troubled TNK-BP joint venture it co-owns with four local tycoons.
A lawyer for plaintiff Andrei Prokhorov said the court's 100-billion-ruble ($3.1-billion) ruling came against London-based BP plc and the group's BP Russia Investment Limited venture.
"We are fully satisfied," attorney Dmitry Chepurenko said by telephone from the oil-producing region of Tyumen.
"For us, this decision was not a surprise."
The award came after Prokhorov reduced demands in his suit to $8.9 billion from the original sum of $12.5 billion on account a drop in the price of oil since the day the initial agreement was first signed in January 2011.
Prokhorov has always denied he was acting in the interests of the four powerful Soviet-era billionaires who operate their half of the company through the Alfa Access Renova (AAR) consortium.
AAR successfully blocked the deal in a European court of arbitration by arguing that BP had an obligations to offer TNK-BP priority rights to any operations it would like to conduct across the country.
Prokhorov said TNK-BP Holding lost potential profits by being shut out of the $16 billion share-swap and joint exploration venture.
The Arctic deal eventually went to the US super-major ExxonMobil.
InterAksyon.com means BUSINESS
BUSINESS NEWS
