March 20, 2008

Police raid British-Russian oil major in Moscow

Russian police raided the headquarters of British-Russian oil giant TNK-BP in the centre of Moscow on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the interior ministry told AFP.

The spokeswoman, Irina Dudukina, said there had been "a seizure" of documents in the context of a police inquiry into a company linked to TNK-BP. A company spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the raid.

"The seizure is taking place within the framework of an ongoing investigation concerning the Sidanko group," Dudukina said, referring to one of the companies that was merged to form TNK-BP in 2003.

Just a brief news item for now.

I recently posted on the politicization of Russian oil via the St. Petersburg Times writer.

This is fascinating and we will undoubtedly be revisiting this story. There is more to the GLOBE than just Western economics and politics ..

Hopefully some good articles on this will appear from various sources so we can piece this all together as information becomes available. Remember: Putin's expertise is in OIL, and that was his brief at the KGB. This is MAJOR, I am sure of it, but of course more shall be revealed.

V


TNK-BP, which is jointly owned by British oil giant BP and by a group of Russian billionaires, has faced growing pressure in Russia, where the oil and gas business is coming increasingly under state control.

TNK-BP has been hit by tax claims for more than a billion dollars and has lost the rights to exploit the vast Kovytka gas field in Siberia. TNK-BP has also been the subject of inquiries by Russia's secret service.

"We are always ready to cooperate with the law enforcement authorities as we always do if that should become necessary," TNK-BP spokeswoman Marina Dracheva told AFP when asked about the raid.

Shares in TNK-BP fell by ten percent on the Russian stock exchange after news of the raid, Interfax news agency reported.

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