BP chief executive Bob Dudley said talks were ongoing about its planned share swap with Russian group Rosneft and he was optimistic about a resolution. "I think there is always lots of discussion going on and I think we will find a resolution to this over time," Dudley told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a conference in St Gallen on Friday.
Dudley declined to say if negotiations over the share swap would be extended, referring questions to Rosneft when pressed following a subsequent panel discussion.
The $18 billion share swap agreement expires on Monday, and some analysts believe it will not be possible to complete negotiations on amending the terms of the broader agreement, involving the Arctic venture, by then, requiring another extension of the deadline or the abandonment of the whole deal.
BP and Rosneft agreed to a $16 billion share swap and a multi-billion dollar Arctic exploration deal in January that was supposed to mark a turning point in the London-based oil giant's fortunes after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
But BP's oligarch partners in its Russian joint venture, TNK-BP, objected to the deal, saying it violated an agreement BP made, when founding TNK-BP, to use TNK-BP as its principal vehicle for investment in Russia.