While Rosneft is busy raising billions of dollars to pay for the take over of TNK-BP, the Anglo-Russian oil major is carrying on in its own sweet way and planning, among other things, a five-fold increase in production from foreign oil projects. Don’t expect any objections from Rosneft. Russia’s state oil company has its own far greater global ambitions. Continue reading »

Photo: Bloomberg

For BP and its Soviet-born billionaire partners in TNK-BP, Rosneft’s mega deal to buy 100 per cent of the Russian oil venture is an enormous $55bn payday on an investment that has already paid out $38bn in dividends.

But minority investors in the main holding of TNK-BP risk being caught stranded – and indeed squashed – in the biggest deal in Russian corporate history, a state of affairs that investors say speaks volumes about the sorry state of Russia’s investment climate. Continue reading »