BP has won another round in its ongoing feud with a shareholder of a Russian subsidiary as a Siberian court overturned a ruling related to searches of the company’s office in Moscow earlier this year.

The Arbitration Court in the city of Omsk found in favour of the UK supermajor in its appeal against a July ruling in a separate Russian court which allowed bailiffs to descend on the offices of BP Exploration Operating Company (BP EOC) on 31 August.

Monday’s ruling by the Omsk court overturns the 19 July ruling in Tyumen in favour of a minority shareholder in TNK-BP, the oil giant’s joint venture in Russia, even though that search order had itself been effectively quashed by the Tyumen court in mid September.

BP EOC wrote in a statement on Monday that it “believes that there was no merit to the [19 July] order of Judge Loskutov” as, amongst other reasons, “the claim to secure evidence from BP EOC should not have been reviewed by the Arbitration Court of Tyumen region since it falls under another court’s jurisdiction, namely the Moscow Arbitration Court”.

Bailiffs descended on the offices of BP EOC on 31 August, turfing staff out and occupying the building for two whole days. Although they did not take any documents away with them they sealed documents for later examination.

The raid was directly related to a case brought against BP in Tyumen by a minority shareholder of its joint venture in the country, TNK-BP, who was aggrieved by the collapse of BP’s $16 billion deal with Rosneft in May.

Monday’s ruling in favour of BP is another blow to TNK-BP minority shareholder Andrei Prokhorov who is looking to sue the supermajor for $4.9 billion over alleged losses suffered by the joint venture in the wake of the failed deal with Rosneft.

BP has consistently denied Prokhorov’s claims, saying “there were in fact no damages in the form of lost profits” for TNK-BP as the latter “was not considered as a possible member of the strategic partnership with Rosneft and could not become a partner ‘due to the lack of required competence’, as has frequently been stated by Rosneft.”

BP lashed the 19 July ruling further on Monday by claiming: “The judge accepted a claim from a person who was not entitled to request the securing of evidence prior to a lawsuit since A Prokhorov did not furnish proof that he or other claimants owned at least 1% of TNK-BP Holding shares, which is a prerequisite to file any lawsuit against members of the board of directors.”

The statement argued further: “The ruling was upheld despite the lack of proof of any need to secure the evidence in question. BP EOC believes that A Prokhorov did not provide justified proof that there is any threat of information loss or concealment.”

In mid September an arbitration court in Tyumen cancelled an order to search the Moscow premises of BP EOC after appeals were made by both the BP offshoot and Rosneft. That left the 19 July ruling still standing, however, which BP appealed, leading to Monday’s ruling.

Lawyers acting for TNK-BP told Upstream last month that they would appeal the mid-September Tyumen ruling but a spokesperson for the firm would not make any comment regarding Monday’s development in Omsk.

Article: BP EOC: BP in Russian office raid victory
Article Source: UP Stream Online
Author: Eoin O’Cinneide

BP EOC: BP in Russian office raid victory