MOSCOW, April 4 (UPI) -- BP may have to give up its stake in Russia's Kovykta gas field.
BP chief Tony Hayward and Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexei Miller agreed to look at new opportunities, though BP's Russian venture, TNK-BP, is facing back tax charges.
The meeting at Gazprom's Moscow headquarters concerned a memorandum of understanding that calls for TNK-BP to sell its 63-percent stake in the vast Kovykta gas field to Gazprom and for the establishment of a joint venture between the two companies, the Moscow Times reported.
Gazprom and Rosneft have denied that they were after a stake in TNK-BP, but it could be an easy target given all the trouble the firm has been in including the arrests of an employee and his brother on charges of industrial espionage and a raid by security services on BP and TNK-BP offices in Moscow. Now the Natural Resources Ministry is also getting involved and has said it would check TNK-BP's largest oil field for environmental violations, and the Interior Ministry accused the company of breaking visa rules.
TNK-BP Chief Executive Robert Dudley said, however, that neither BP nor its partners in the venture were negotiating to sell out.
