BP offers a deal to Russians

BP agreed on Friday to hand a potentially lucrative oil exploration deal in the Arctic to its Russian joint venture partner to salvage a share swap agreement with Rosneft. LONDON BP agreed on Friday to hand a potentially lucrative oil explorationdeal rift gold in the Arctic to its Russian joint venture in an attempt to salvage a share swap agreement with Rosneft, the Russian statecontrolled oil company.
BP hopes the concession will end a three-month dispute with its Russian billionaire partners in the joint venture, TNK-BP, which had opposed the Rosneft deal. But any changes to the agreement would have to be approved by Rosneft. Rosneft declined to comment, according to Reuters.
‘‘ This is a step in the right direction,’’ Robert Wine, a spokesman for BP in London, said. ‘‘ It shows that there is an element of agreement.’’ The company’s shares rose 2.5 percent in London on Friday.
The billionaire partners had blocked BP’s $ 7.8 billion agreement with Rosneft, which included a share swap and access to exploration blocks in Russia’s Arctic that might hold billions of barrels of oil. The partners argued that the rift gold deal breached their own shareholder agreement with BP and demanded to be part of any new business in Russia.