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BP shares leap after share swap deal with Rosneft
Business digest: Oil company’s latest venture has attracted plenty of criticism - but shareholders like it
BP's new alliance with controversial Russian oil company Rosneft has not gone down well in some quarters, but investors have given it the thumbs up as the British company's shares rose 2.5 per cent on Monday morning.
The deal, announced late on Friday, involves a £16bn share swap with Rosneft, which is 75 per cent owned by the Russian government, and gives BP access TO the rich oil and gas reserves in the Arctic. It indirectly makes the Kremlin the largest shareholder in BP.
Despite the approval of shareholders the agreement has been criticised by environmental campaigners and has attracted a political backlash in the US.
It also places new BP chief executive Bob Dudley in an interesting position. He ran the company's TNK-BP joint venture in Russia until 2008, when he was forced to flee the country after falling out with the Russian co-owners. They are also said to be unhappy over the Rosneft deal.
Read a full report at the Guardian. ·
