BP was celebrating this weekend after a $16 billion claim against the company in respect of its TNK-BP venture in Russia was thrown out by a Siberian court.
A minority shareholder in the TNK-BP venture was suing BP on the basis that an attempted tie-up with Russian firm Rosneft had cost TNK-BP billions of dollars in future profit.
The court rejected the claim for lack of evidence and because the main claimant, Andrei Prokhorov, had failed to get the necessary support of more than 1 percent of TNK-BP’s shareholders.
The outcome is an unexpectedly swift one for BP, which at its lowest ebb in Russia had its Moscow offices by armed policemen in August at the behest of TNK shareholders.
Prokhorov, who holds a small percentage stake in TNK-BP, plans to appeal the ruling, according to a disclosure by his lawyers to the New York Times. He has 30 days to appeal.
The company still faces a legal action in Sweden, where an arbitrator has been asked to rule whether BP broke its obligations to TNK-BP shareholders in seeking a tie-in with Rosneft.
