Russia's biggest oil firm Rosneft on Friday called "very interesting" a proposal from BP to take an equity stake in a deal that could see the British group quit its troubled TNK-BP joint venture. The comments by Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin - the right-hand-man of President Vladimir Putin on energy - intensified expectations that Rosneft will acquire the 50 percent stake BP wants to sell in its lucrative Russian business.
The announcement came just a day after reports said Rosneft was seeking a $10-15 billion loan to buy BP's half of a lucrative but fractious company it runs with some of Russia's best-connected and most powerful businessmen. "We think this is a very interesting proposal," Sechin told reporters at a company board meeting in the Black Sea port of Sochi. The Russian oil champion and BP last year tore up a $16 billion share swap and joint Arctic oil exploration agreement after it was successfully challenged by the TNK-BP oligarch shareholders who wanted the deal for themselves. The venture pays BP billions in annual dividends and was last year responsible for about a quarter of its oil output.
But it has also been the source of constant board battles and a drag on the company's stock because of occasional interventions from the Russian state on the side of the billionaires. The sale by BP of its entire TNK-BP stake for cash and shares in Rosneft could bolster its shaky standing in the world's largest oil producing country and give it potential access to coveted Arctic oil. Putin unexpectedly received BP's chief executive and chairman for closed-door talks this week that Sechin said included a formal proposal from the British firm to swap shares under a TNK-BP buyout arrangement.
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