Energy giant’s stake in state-backed oil company Rosneft has lost in value and sanctions won’t help the share price
On Russia, BP has tended to talk in two directions about last year’s complicated deal where it sold its 50% share in TNK-BP and recycled much of the proceeds into a larger stake in Rosneft, the state-backed oil giant.
At times, BP has portrayed the transaction as "de-risking" its exposure to Russia. Up to a point, that was fair comment. BP took a chunk of cash out of the country to fund a £4.7bn programme of buying its own shares. A stake of 20% in Kremlin-friendly Rosneft also looked safer than TNK-BP, where the joint venture partners were a bunch of politically astute and argumentative oligarchs. So, yes, a little risk was taken off the table.