TNK-BP: Putin is watching. (Interview).

In an interview with Argus, Bob Dudley, president-designate of TNK-BP, BP's joint venture with the owners of Tyumen Oil (TNK) and Sidanco, outlined future priorities and strategy.

What will TNK-BP's upstream priorities be?

There are so many good assets in TNK and Sidanco. We believe there are also many mature assets. One of our early jobs will be to look around the world at BP's technological experience, and to combine our expertise with TNK's skills and people to increase production from the mature assets.

Will the Samotlor field be your focus or are you planning to wait for progress with the Samotlor production-sharing agreement (PSA)?

Samotlor is already in production, so we can start working on it. But BP and TNK both believe …