BP defiant in Russia
Defiant BP chief executive Tony Hayward yesterday said the British oil giant would “not be intimidated by the strong arm tactics” of its warring oligarch partners at its Russian joint venture, TNK-BP.
Hayward said: “The other shareholders want to tear up the agreement that they willingly signed in 2003 We are not prepared to do that and will vigorously defend our rights using all legal means at our disposal.”
The BP-appointed head of TNK-BP Robert Dudley is hiding in central Europe after a campaign of “extreme harassment” from the joint ventures’ Russian billionaire partners.
BP has also announced a 6 per cent rise in its closely watched second quarter replacement cost profit after tax of $6.9bn (£3.4bn), compared to a year ago. Over the first half of the year BP said it had made a replacement profit of $13.4bn, a rise of 23 per cent on a year ago.
