Oligarchs seek a BP stake swap to settle Russian row

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Amid allegations of Kremlin-inspired spying and attempted land grabs and counter claims that BP has been avoiding taxes and holding secret board meetings, the future of TNK-BP is in the balance.

Now, it has emerged, a solution could be for the four oligarchs involved in TNK-BP to take a 7.6% stake in Britain's biggest company.

Russian newspaper Kommersant reported today that one of the four oligarchs, Viktor Vekselberg, had floated "an idea" with BP that the TNK-BP venture as it stands should be liquidated and he and his colleagues Mikhail Fridman, German Khan and Len Blavatnik should swap their holdings for BP shares.

At current values, a 7.6% stake in BP is worthmore than £8 billion.

BP has struck an aggressive stance in what it sees as blatant Kremlininspired attempts to oust BP and gain control of the TNK-BP venture.

BP chairman Peter Sutherland stoked up the row last week, saying the pressure on BP is "just a return to the corporate-raiding activities that were prevalent in Russia in the 1990s".

Representatives of the oligarchs have hit back, accusing BP bosses, led by TNK-BP head Robert Dudley, of mismanagement, breaking Russian corporate law and failing to work with its co-investors.

Stan Polovets, chief executive of the oligarchs' AAR consortium, told today's Moscow Times: "BP has tried to portray the Russian shareholders as anti-Western. This is blatantly false. There should be no illusions about this: it is about mismanagement of the company, not politics or change of ownership."