London Court Blocks Rosneft-BP Share Swap

A court in London blocked a $8 bln share swap between major Russian and British oil companies, Rosneft and BP, who intended to create a strategic partnership to extract oil and natural gas in Russia. Russian shareholders in another of BP’s joint ventures in Russia, TNK-BP, won a preliminary injunction after arguing that the Rosneft-BP deal breaches the TNK-BP shareholders’ agreement, which prohibits BP from entering into joint ventures in Russia without TNK-BP participation. The shareholders' dispute should be resolved by an arbitration tribunal in Stockholm later this month.

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