BP criticised a raid by bailiffs and armed special forces troopers of its Moscow office on Wednesday, describing it as “part of a pressure campaign against BP’s business in -Russia”.
Speaking in Moscow, Jeremy Huck, president of BP Russia, said the company believed the actions were “without merit”. The raid, ordered on Tuesday by a court in west Siberia, compounded the UK oil group’s woes in Russia a day after -ExxonMobil stole a march on it by signing a historic Arctic exploration deal with Rosneft, the Russian oil group.
BP faces a lawsuit by minority shareholders in TNK-BP, its Russian joint venture, who are suing for Rs87bn ($3bn) over the collapse of a proposed tie-up between BP and Rosneft which fell apart this year.