Misha Japaridze/AP . -0 Hopes that BP could take the focus away from its failure to tie-up a ground-breaking deal with Rosneft in Russia were crushed on Wednesday when black-clad special forces raided its main offices in Moscow. The law enforcement officers were acting with the consent of a court in Tyumen, where minority shareholders are pursuing a $3bn (£1.8bn) compensation claim against BP over the collapse of the share swap with Rosneft. The move comes less than 24 hours after the Russian state-owned oil company triumphantly unveiled an alternative strategic alliance to explore the Russian Arctic with BP's rival ExxonMobil. Lawyers acting for Andrei Prokhorov, a disgruntled shareholder from BP's Russian joint venture TNK-BP, said the raid was a reaction to BP's failure to provide documents on the proposed tie-up between the UK firm and state-owned Rosneft. "We therefore applied once again to the court of arbitration of Tyumen region to have the measures to secure evidence replaced, and on 30 August the court permitted the bailiff to examine documents held by BP Exploration Operating Company Limited," said Dmitri Chepurenko, a partner in the Liniya Prava legal practice which represents Prokhorov but also – allegedly – the Alfa Access Renova (AAR) consortium led by oligarchs such as Mikhail Fridman. BP dismissed the raid as unnecessary and said there were no grounds for anyone to seek compensation over the collapse of the Rosneft deal. "We do not believe there is any legitimate basis whatsoever for the claim launched against BP in the Tyumen court and we intend to defend our interests vigorously," said a spokesman at BP's London headquarters, adding: "We do not believe there are legitimate grounds for today's raid."
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Thursday, September 1, 2011
Misha Japaridze/AP . -0 Hopes that BP could take the focus away from its failure to tie-up a ground-breaking deal with Rosneft in Russia were crushed on Wednesday when black-clad special forces raided its main offices in Moscow. The law enforcement officers were acting with the consent of a court in Tyumen, where minority shareholders are pursuing a $3bn (£1.8bn) compensation claim against BP over the collapse of the share swap with Rosneft. The move comes less than 24 hours after the Russian state-owned oil company triumphantly unveiled an alternative strategic alliance to explore the Russian Arctic with BP's rival ExxonMobil. Lawyers acting for Andrei Prokhorov, a disgruntled shareholder from BP's Russian joint venture TNK-BP, said the raid was a reaction to BP's failure to provide documents on the proposed tie-up between the UK firm and state-owned Rosneft. "We therefore applied once again to the court of arbitration of Tyumen region to have the measures to secure evidence replaced, and on 30 August the court permitted the bailiff to examine documents held by BP Exploration Operating Company Limited," said Dmitri Chepurenko, a partner in the Liniya Prava legal practice which represents Prokhorov but also – allegedly – the Alfa Access Renova (AAR) consortium led by oligarchs such as Mikhail Fridman. BP dismissed the raid as unnecessary and said there were no grounds for anyone to seek compensation over the collapse of the Rosneft deal. "We do not believe there is any legitimate basis whatsoever for the claim launched against BP in the Tyumen court and we intend to defend our interests vigorously," said a spokesman at BP's London headquarters, adding: "We do not believe there are legitimate grounds for today's raid."
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Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the German government had "stressed its determination to secure the stability of the euro with powerful equipment at the eurozone level."
The plans now go to the German parliament, which is to start considering the changes on September 7. A vote is expected on September 29.
Lawmakers have to sign off on a decision made by eurozone leaders July 21 to equip their bailout fund with new pre-emptive powers, such as the ability to buy up distressed government bonds to support their prices or extending short-term credit lines to countries before they are in full-blown crisis mode.
They also decided to bring its effective lending capacity up to the headline figure of €440bn from the current roughly €250bn.
Ms Merkel now has to win over sceptics in her center-right coalition, who view the prospect of more bailouts for debt-laden countries on Europe's periphery with increasing unease.
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