Posted on 06/29/2010 2:37:54 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive, met top Russian officials in Moscow yesterday in an effort to reassure them that the company’s commitment to Russia, the source of a quarter of its oil production, was undiminished after the catastrophic oil spill in the US Gulf of Mexico.
The question of Mr Hayward’s future was never very far from people’s minds, however, and in a mysterious slip up, Igor Sechin, deputy prime minister, appeared to raise the issue in press comments before the meeting.
Mr Sechin, who oversees energy policy, was quoted by several Russian news agencies as saying “Hayward is leaving his post, he will introduce his successor”.
Carolyn Copland, BP spokeswomen in London, said the report was “definitely not correct”.
After the meeting, Mr Sechin denied through an aide that he had said the words attributed to him. “He said there would be speculation about his [Hayward’s] retirement,” said a spokesperson, “not that it was going to be discussed in the meeting”.
He added that the meeting, described by BP as a “routine working visit”, focused on BP’s Russian joint venture TNK-BP, which accounts for about a quarter of BP’s reserves and production. The two “exchanged views” on the clean-up taking place in the Gulf of Mexico and Mr Hayward “confirmed BP’s commitment to a course of strategic partnership with Russian companies in current and future projects in Russia”.
The subject of Mr Hayward’s resignation was not discussed, the aide added.
Yuri Fedotov, Russia’s ambassador to London, last week said Moscow hoped TNK-BP would not be hurt by the costs BP will bear from cleaning the oil spill.
“We want to see how it will work and how this situation will affect the overall strategy of BP and how it may affect ... these joint ventures in Russia. We want to have some guarantees it will continue to work,” he told reporters last week.
BP’s agreement to pay $20bn into an independent escrow account to foot the bill for damages incurred in the oil spill has prompted fears it could be forced to sell off some of its Russian assets, including its 1.2 per cent stake in Rosneft, the state-controlled Russian oil major chaired by Mr Sechin.
Jonathan Muir, TNK-BP’s chief financial officer, yesterday said TNK-BP’s investment programme in Russia was going ahead unhindered by BP’s troubles elsewhere. “It is business as usual,” he said.
Mr Hayward’s visit to Russia did not include a meeting with Dmitry Medvedev, the president, who last week announced environmental legislation designed to protect Russia’s coasts from oil spills, and floated the idea of a global pollution fund at the G20 meeting in Toronto on Sunday.
Mr Hayward’s visit was a routine one to the country made every three months, BP said.
Mother Russia would like a twenty billion dollar slush fund just in case.
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