OIl giant BP has agreed a deal worth more than $27 billion (£17bn) that will see it take a stake in the world’s largest publicly-listed oil producer, it was reported yesterday.
It is understood that the oil giant’s board unanimously approved a plan at a meeting on Friday to sell its 50 per cent stake in its troubled TNK-BP joint venture to Rosneft, in return for cash and shares in the state-backed Russian energy firm.
The final details of the deal are still being thrashed out ahead of an announcement – which could come as soon as today – but it is thought that BP will receive up to $13bn and take a stake of 15 per cent to 20 per cent in Rosneft.
Rosneft would become the world’s biggest publicly-traded oil company after the deal. Its daily crude output is more than three million barrels.
It would also end years of wrangling over BP’s Russian joint venture, owned with partners Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR). BP has had a fraught relationship with AAR, although the venture is thought to have earned the British firm $19bn in dividends. A dispute between BP and AAR effectively sank a proposed tie-up between the British blue-chip and Rosneft last year.
Key points still under negotiation are said to be the number of seats BP will be given on Rosneft’s board.
It is thought BP chief executive Bob Dudley and David Peattie, the group’s head of Russia, could join the board, while a prominent Russian may also reportedly be appointed to BP’s board, such as Rosneft boss Igor Sechin.