Oil: BP's Russian venture put in doubt after staff are pulled out

[CHIMO]

Source: The Guardian

BP's appetite for remaining in Russia was being questioned last night after it announced plans to pull out the last 60 of its 148 technical experts employed inside TNK-BP and agreed that the Russian joint venture should pursue opportunities in Venezuela.

AAR has accused BP of running the joint venture for its own purposes and claims the British company has turned down opportunities to work abroad for fear of being in conflict with its existing business interests, something denied by BP.

Yesterday the company said it had agreed with TNK-BP signing a deal with the Venezuelan state oil group PDVSA but played down its significance. BP is already independently involved in Venezuela through a series of small joint ventures and produces net volumes of 20,000 barrels a day there.

BP said it had agreed to support five foreign proposals put forward by the TNK-BP executives and three of them - including the Venezuelan one - were currently moving forward. The other two are in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan but BP said it was always supportive of "realistic" opportunities.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jul/22/bp.russia