Russia/BP-TNK: shotgun marriage

BP’s adventure in Russia has taken a fresh twist. A government agency is threatening to revoke the licence owned by TNK-BP, the UK oil giant’s Russian joint venture, to Kovykta, a giant Siberian gas field. The best interpretation from BP’s perspective is that the move is a negotiating tactic to force a deal admitting a state energy company to the project. There’s a strong sense of deja vu to the dispute. In 2007, the same Russian government agency made the same threat, claiming that the field’s...