TNK-BP: Crying time again

BP’s years of playing pals with the Kremlin aren’t paying off after all. The British oil major is embroiled in a bitter dispute with its Russian partners over the fate of TNK-BP, a joint venture launched in 2003 with Russia’s TNK – the very same company that had been instrumental a few years earlier in stripping BP of its Russian assets. And if experience is any guide, BP stands little chance of coming out ahead. The latest excuse for the conflict is that the Russians want to get rid of the ven...