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(From The Moscow Times)
BP announced Friday that it had completed its $6 billion-plus deal to merge its Russian assets with those of TNK, but with two notable modifications to February's initial agreement.
BP had originally planned to fold its interests in the Sakhalin oil and gas fields into the new company TNK-BP, the country's No. 3 oil major, but due to resistance from Rosneft, its partner in those ventures, those plans are being put on hold.
But with the unexpected exclusion of that asset came the unexpected inclusion of a different one.
The British oil major said Friday that it had agreed to pay $1.35 billion for half of TNK's 50 percent stake in Slavneft -- a transaction it expects to complete by the end of this year.
TNK together with rival Sibneft acquired Slavneft through a privatization auction last December, too late in the negotiation stage with BP to wrap it into the preliminary structure of TNK-BP.
BP chief executive Lord John Browne hailed the closure of the deal and the inclusion of Slavneft in a statement Friday.