BP scrambles to salvage Rosneft deal

BP is in last minute talks with Russian state oil firm Rosneft in attempt to salvage the proposed $16bn (£9.9bn) share swap deal before the midnight deadline tonight.

The oil giant had talks with Rosneft, as well as its partners in the TNK-BP joint venture, yesterday in Russia, to form a compromise among the three firms.

One of the proposed solutions was a possible buy-out of Alfa-Access Renova, the company that BP's partners in the TNK-BP use to hold their share of the joint venture, according to the Financial Times.

Earlier this month, a tribunal ruled BP's planned $16bn share swap deal with Rosneft could only go ahead if BP allowed TNK-BP to take its place in any partnership to explore the Arctic for oil, with Rosneft.

However, the deal also hit a wall as the share swap needed to be restructured, to ensure the shares of both partnering companies were held in a trust.

AAR had previously attempted to prevent the partnership in the view it violated the TNP-BP shareholder agreement.

Meanwhile Rosneft had said in the past it did not want TNK-BP as its partner in any Arctic exploration.

The firm is concerned it will not be able to access BP's technical abilities if the alliance is formed via the TNK-BP partnership.

The price of Brent crude oil is $113.14, down 0.69%.