Moscow Times 17 October 2012
BP’s billionaire partners in a Russian joint venture tentatively agreed to sell their stake to state-controlled oil producer Rosneft for $28 billion, news reports said Wednesday.
Alfa-Access-Renova, a consortium of four billionaires, signed the deal with Rosneft the night before, Sky News reported, citing no sources. Reuters carried a similar report sourced to a person familiar with the matter.
Spokespeople for AAR, as the consortium is known, and Rosneft declined to comment.
If the report is true, the value of the stake appears to be a setback for AAR, which turned down an offer by BP and Rosneft in May 2011 to cash out of TNK-BP for $32 billion.
People close to BP said the agreement will not affect BP’s decision to sell its stake in the 50-50 venture, Sky News reported.