BP Happy To Do Business W. Russian Oil Partners It Regarded As "Crooks & Thugs", Memos Reveal

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BP's attempt to rebuild its public image after the worst oil spill in US history has been dealt a blow by court documents showing it was willing to do a major deal with Russian billionaires whom it regarded as "crooks and thugs" to gain access to the country's vast oil wealth. The damaging allegations have come to light at a critical time for BP, which faces a criminal investigation by the US justice department while preparing to fight a massive legal case in New Orleans over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

North American rival Norex Petroleum is seeking $1bn damages in its case at the New York supreme court as it argues that BP and its Russian business partner, TNK, have benefited from oil assets that were seized in the late 1990s. Russia is important to BP – its joint-venture, TNK-BP, produces a quarter of its oil. At the heart of the dispute is the alleged misappropriation of the Yugraneft oilfield in Siberia, which Norex claims has generated $1bn in oil revenues in the past decade.

In 2003, BP announced a $6.75bn (£4.2bn) deal to acquire a 50% holding in Tyumen Oil – TNK – which was backed by Alfa Access Renova (AAR), a consortium controlled by four of the country's richest businessmen, Mikhail Fridman, German Khan, Leonard Blavatnik and Viktor Vekselberg.

A BP internal briefing, obtained by Norex and published through the New York court procedure, says: "Sources close to TNK believe local oil industry been infested with criminal elements long before Alfa took over TNK."

EDIT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/nov/05/bp-clean-up-russia-case