Stockholm Arbitration Court to resume BP-Rosneft deal hearings

LONDON, May 5 (Itar-Tass) - The bench of the Stockholm Arbitration
Court on Thursday will resume hearings on the transaction between British
Petroleum and Rosneft. According to the presented plans, the court meeting
will last two days.
BP Group told Itar-Tass on the eve of the meeting that the review of
what was discussed earlier will be continued. The Arbitration Court will
focus, according to a BP official, on the separation of projects for the
exchange of shares between BP and Rosneft, where the value of securities
amounts to approximately 16 billion US dollars, and the development of
hydrocarbon deposits in the Russian Arctic zone.
Several weeks ago (in early April) the Arbitration Court postponed
making a final decision, the BP official recalled. It was suggested to
seek an extension of the deadline for the registration of the share
exchange transaction. After that, BP and Rosneft extended to May 16 the
deadline for the completion of the share exchange deal between them, which
was originally scheduled for April 14.
Now the consideration of the previously discussed issues will be
continued, according to the BP representative. The implementation of both
projects is currently under injunction, BP noted.
Rosneft and BP in January concluded several agreements on strategic
cooperation, joint exploration of hydrocarbon deposits in the Russian
Arctic and the exchange of shares valued at about 8 billion US dollars
from each of the two sides. The AAR Consortium that is on par with BP owns
TNK-BP, considered BP's partnership with Rosneft contradicting the
shareholder agreement of the British company with local partners and
applied to court.
On March 24, the Stockholm Arbitration Court recognised the Rosneft-BP
package agreement violating the shareholders' agreement of TNK-BP.
Following the decision taken on March 24, BP appealed to the Stockholm
Arbitration Court with a request for a determination as to whether the
share exchange deal could be implemented by itself, regardless of the
agreement to jointly develop oil fields.
The exchange of shares and cooperation in the Arctic, which were
announced on January 14, remain subject to final decision of the
Arbitration Court, BP stressed earlier.