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Russian authorities search Moscow BP offices again
Tuesday, 27 May 2008BP had its Moscow offices searched today by investigators, two months after a similar raid.
“The FSB visited BP’s Moscow office,” David Nicholas, a London-based BP spokesman, said by phone, referring to the Federal Security Service. “There is no impact on our operations.”
BP is cooperating with the FSB, he said.
Investigators searched BP on March 19, the same day officers raided the central Moscow office of BP’s TNK-BP venture a week after detaining and charging an employee with industrial espionage. Moscow-based BP spokesman Vladimir Buyanov declined to say whether today’s visit is linked.
BP owns half of TNK-BP, while the other half is controlled by billionaires Mikhail Fridman, German Khan, Viktor Vekselberg and Len Blavatnik.
TNK-BP hasn’t been searched today and is operating as usual, spokeswoman Marina Dracheva said by telephone. She declined to comment on the FSB’s visit to BP. An FSB spokesman, who declined to give his name, said he had no information about the BP visit.
BP is under pressure as a minority shareholder sues to annul an employment agreement, banning 148 of BP’s project management, drilling and safety specialists from working at TNK- BP. The first hearing of the case in a Siberian court was postponed to tomorrow from today, Eduard Karyukhin, a lawyer for the plaintiff, ZAO Tetlis, said by phone from Tyumen.
BP and TNK-BP’s legal troubles may be connected with disagreements with the Russian shareholders, the Moscow-based Vedomosti newspaper said May 14. Tetlis, which owns about 0.13 percent of TNK-BP’s traded unit, was set up by former employees at financial units of Alfa Group, the holding company controlled by Fridman and Khan. Alfa has denied any connection to Tetlis.
TNK-BP faces tax claims at its Slavneft venture with OAO Gazprom Neft and at Sidanco, which was incorporated into the venture in 2003, as well as environmental audits. TNK-BP and state-run OAO Gazprom haven’t agreed on a sale price for the venture’s Kovykta natural-gas project amid speculation the gas- export monopoly plans to buy out the Russian shareholders’ stake.
The Russian shareholders in February denied holding talks about selling their stake. Vekselberg said in a January interview in Vedomosti that he wouldn’t sell if TNK-BP were valued at $60 billion. TNK-BP was worth $33.9 billion based on today’s closing price of $2.14, a 2.3 percent decline from yesterday.
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