BP failed to reverse a block on its proposed $16 billion share swap with Rosneft though it was given time by an arbitration panel to try to extend an April 14 deadline for the deal. The arbitration ruling on Friday, at the end of a week of hearings in London, marked another victory for the co-owners of BP's Russian venture TNK-BP, who said a planned strategic alliance between BP and Rosneft violated TNK-BP's shareholder agreement.
However it did not deal a knockout blow to BP's hopes of implementing a broader agreement with the state-controlled Russian oil major to launch an offshore exploration venture in the Arctic, analysts said. Rosneft, chaired by Deputy Premier Igor Sechin, said it had received no proposal to extend the share swap deadline from BP, whose CEO Bob Dudley faces tough questions over the Rosneft deal and the Gulf of Mexico disaster at BP's AGM next week.
"The arbitral tribunal has ruled that the interim injunction prohibiting closing of the share swap transaction will remain in place until further notice," BP said in a statement. In a first decision on March 24, the arbitration tribunal - a forum for mediating business disputes - upheld an injunction against the BP-Rosneft deal to conduct the share swap and launch the Arctic exploration effort. This, the second round of arbitration held under the auspices of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, heard a further request from BP to consider the share swap as a standalone deal.