LONDON — BP won the backing of a Siberian court Friday in its battle against $16 billion in compensation claims brought by a minority shareholder in TNK-BP, the oil giant’s Russian joint venture. It was an unexpectedly swift victory in a court system usually stacked against outsiders, and such cases can drag on for years.
The court in Tyumen rejected lawsuits brought by Andrei Prokhorov, who claimed that BP’s failed deal with Rosneft cost TNK-BP billions in profit. The court rejected the claim for lack of evidence and because Mr. Prokhorov had failed to get the necessary support of more than 1 percent of TNK-BP’s shareholders.
The ruling was a victory for BP in a country whose oil and natural gas accounts for about a quarter of the company’s output, but where it has faced repeated run-ins with its partners and the Kremlin. The recent claims were the basis for a raid by police commandos armed with assault rifles on BP’s offices in Moscow in August.
The timing had raised some eyebrows in the industry because it came a day after Exxon had agreed to take BP’s place in an exploration deal with Rosneft.
Jeremy Huck, president of BP Russia, said in a statement that the company was pleased with the decision.
“I also believe that today’s decision is a positive contribution to the investment climate in Russia,” he added.
BP had to abandon an agreement with Rosneft, a state controlled company, in May that would have given it access to lucrative exploration fields and would have included a share swap between the two companies. The deal fell apart because of challenges from BP’s billionaire partners in the TNK-BP joint venture.
BP had been eager to present a promising growth strategy to its investors after the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year.
On Friday, the Siberian court rejected two claims by a group led by Mr. Prokhorov. One, worth about $3 billion, was against the TNK-BP board members Peter Anthony Charow and Richard Scott Sloan; the other, worth about $13 billion, was against BP itself.
“BP have consistently maintained that there is no merit in the lawsuits against them since there were in fact no damages in the form of lost profits,” the company said. It added that Rosneft did not consider TNK-BP as a possible member of the Rosneft partnership because it lacked the required competence.
Mr. Prokhorov, who owns a tiny percentage of the TNK-BP joint venture, plans to appeal the ruling, his attorneys said. He has 30 days to appeal, according to Russian law.
BP is still embroiled in a separate legal dispute with its Russian billionaire partners in TNK-BP about whether the Rosneft deal breached their shareholder agreement. The case is in arbitration in Sweden.
Western business partners of Alfa Group, one of the Russian owners of TNK-BP, have encountered a pattern of being sued by ostensibly independent minority shareholders in their joint ventures, often in Siberian courts. Telenor, the Norwegian cellphone company, spent years grappling with one such Siberian lawsuit that nearly wiped out its business in Russia.
The BP-Rosneft deal failed although Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin had backed it and a top aide presided over the signing, adding to the sense of mystery as to what is needed in Russia to secure an investment. Kremlin watchers suggested later that the faction that had backed the deal fell from favor shortly after the signing.
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=14f444058bae785364afeeaf43eafe42
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