BP 'set for Russian share deal'

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

BP is set to announce a major deal with the state run energy giant Rosneft, according to BBC sources in Russia.

The share swap deal could allow BP to drill for oil and gas in the untouched and totally unproven waters in the Russian part of the Arctic.

BP new chief executive Bob Dudley is hosting a press conference later where details are expected.

It could mean the Russian government owning a significant part of the UK's largest oil major.





Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12195576

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Official announcement is due to made at 9pm GMT.

I'd guessed it was only a matter of time before either Russia or China took substantial ownership in BP.

See also :

BP Plc rose as much as 2.7 percent to an eight-month intraday high of $48.74 in New York after the company said in an invitation to reporters that it would hold a press conference at 9 p.m. London time.

Separately, Sky News reported that BP and Russian state oil producer OAO Rosneft will exchange shares in one another.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-14/bp-gains-as-oil-producer-calls-press-conference-sky-cites-rosneft-accord.html

and :

BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) is poised to unveil a share swap agreement with OAO Rosneft, the state-controlled Russian oil firm, according to people familiar with the matter, in a deal that will deepen the U.K. company's ties in Russia.

(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal website, WSJ.com.)

The agreement is to be announced in a press conference BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley is giving at BP's headquarters in London late Friday. Terms of the share swap and other details of the agreement between the two companies are not known.

BP already owns a roughly 1% stake in Rosneft, and last year it struck a complex deal to effectively borrow against the stake when it was rushing to raise funds to help pay for the cost of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

For BP, which already has a significant joint venture in Russian known as TNK-BP, such a deal might give it greater access to Russia's vast resources of oil and gas.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110114-710462.html

[Cleita]

1. Then we should make them get out of our

territorial waters as well as their holdings on our land. No more foreign ownership of our resources, please. Surely, there is a law buried somewhere in our books that can do this.

[dipsydoodle]

3. They never did "own your resources"

They have licenses to extract them. Your oil goes on the International market - its not "kept" for home use.

[Cleita]

4. That's owning as far as I'm concerned because I don't

see Americans getting the income from the sale on the International market. Revoke those licenses now. Also, they seem to have little regard about what pollution they leave behind. I say nationalize them yesterday.

[dipsydoodle]

6. Fine

The same argument with regard to who gets the income could then be used for all US oil companies to be kicked out of the entire Middle East.

[Cleita]

8. I have no objection to that. I'm all for other

countries keeping their assets for the benefit of their people. Perhaps then there would be no need for those wars there.

[dipsydoodle]

9. Yes

:thumbsup:

[Ghost Dog]

10. Would you like to see US grain, for example, also excluded from

'international' (financial) markets?

That would cure plenty of global imbalances PDQ as well...

[DCKit]

2. "...owning a significant part of the UK's largest oil major."'s liability for the Gulf Oil Spill. nt

[dipsydoodle]

5. Well if you put it that way ,

in terms of share ownership, then JP Morgan Chase who own c.28% of BP shares are also 28% liable.

[DCKit]

7. Sweet!!!! Too bad they're insolvent (absent accounting Hocus Pocus). nt

[Ghost Dog]

11. Confirmed. BP, Russia's Rosneft in share swap, offshore pact (Reuters)

LONDON | Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:34pm GMT

LONDON (Reuters) - BP Plc and Russia's state-controlled Rosneft agreed to a share swap under which they would jointly explore for offshore oil and gas, in a deal that immediately raised concerns in the United States about Russia's global oil ambitions.

BP, recovering from its Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster, said on Friday it will swap 5 percent of its shares, valued at $7.8 billion (£4.9 billion), for 9.5 percent of Rosneft. BP said it will issue new shares to Rosneft.

The deal covers areas in the South Kara Sea in the Arctic that BP said could contain billions of barrels of oil and gas. It also provides the oil company with access to huge tracts of the Arctic that had previously been reserved for Russian companies.

The pact, which is expected to be completed in a few weeks, highlights a sharp turnaround in relations with Moscow both for BP and its Chief Executive Bob Dudley, who was forced to flee Russia in 2008 after heading BP's Russian joint venture, TNK-BP, which is half-owned by BP.

Dudley said the deal was the first significant cross-shareholding between a nationally owned oil company and an international oil company and called it "a new template for how business can be done in our industry ..."

/... http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE70D5PB20110114