Posts Tagged ‘Medvedev’

President Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia should unilaterally claim part of the Arctic, stepping up the race for the disputed energy-rich region.

Investors have been shedding their exposure to the Russian market, taking fright initially from the power struggle at TNK-BP and latterly from the falling oil price and the conflict in Georgia.

Late in 2006, another of Europe's Big Oil contingent,Royal Dutch Shell was pushed into selling its assets on remote Sakhalin Island to Gazprom at a below-market price.

Gazprom wrested control of the $22 billion Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project from Royal Dutch Shell for a fraction of market value.

However, a person close to BP said it looked bad for the London-based oil major. "This is another step in the corporate takeover," he said. "They've got the CEO to leave the country, they've got the 148 BP specialists out, and now they've got the CFO to resign."

In an address to Russian ministers yesterday, Mr Medvedev said "law enforcement and state institutions should stop terrifying business" - a comment widely interpreted as a response to the escalating TNK-BP battle.

"ExxonMobil is the only one that could really pull it off but it is more logical for BP to do a merger of equals with Shell with Tony Hayward running both companies," Gheit added.

People close to BP say TNK-BP's troubles stem from a Kremlin drive to transfer control of the company to a state entity like OAO Gazprom, leaving BP as a minority partner.

Ultimately, these people say, the Kremlin is seeking to gain control over the venture for a state company like OAO Gazprom, likely leaving BP as a minority partner.

When Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez touches down in Moscow on July 22 to meet with the duumvirate of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, he will be ready for more than the usual diplomatic photo-op. This odd trio will be well-positioned to plan substantial international mischief.

Gordon Brown's hopes of a thaw in Britain's relationship with the Kremlin received a setback yesterday after "sharp-edged" talks with the new Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev.

However, he appears to have won only a temporary respite from their attempts to remove him.

A similar barrage of official harassment was unleashed in 2006 against Royal Dutch Shell to force it to sell a controlling stake in its giant Sakhalin gas venture to Russia's state-dominated energy champion Gazprom.

The truth is that the rule of law in Russia was mocked, not strengthened, under Vladimir Putin, and it remains a sham. It offered no more protection for Shell (squeezed out of the Sakhalin-2 gas project after being threatened with a $30 billion environmental lawsuit) or Yukos (dismantled by the Tax Ministry and sold off to Kremlin allies) than it does now for BP or 140 million ordinary Russians.

In Russia it's all war and no peace for BP.

Whatever expectations one has of the Russian government and civil institutions, they always disappoint.