Terry Macalister
Friday February 16, 2007
BP has offered to hand over a majority stake in Kovykta, one of Russia’s most exciting gas projects, to the state-owned Gazprom. The concession follows mounting pressure from the Kremlin similar to that which forced Shell to cede control over the Sakhalin-2 scheme.
The British company, whose Russian joint venture TNK-BP holds a 65% stake in Kovykta, was told last week by Russia’s resources ministry that it must put right violations by May or lose the operating licence for the eastern Siberian field.