BP to offload stake in Russian oil giant

By Muhammad Mussa

LONDON (AA) - UK oil giant British Petroleum (BP) announced Sunday that it will exit its stake in Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft after coming under pressure from the government.

The company announced that it was offloading its 19.75% voting stake in Rosneft, which was valued around £10.4 billion ($14 billion) at the end of last year.

"Russia's attack on Ukraine is an act of aggression which is having tragic consequences across the region,” BP’s chairman Helge Lund said in a statement.

“BP has operated in Russia for over 30 years, working with brilliant Russian colleagues. However, this military action represents a fundamental change,” Lund added.

The company’s chief executive Bernard Looney will resign from Rosneft’s board while former executive Bob Dudley will also tender his resignation.

UK Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng welcomed the move after lengthy discussions with the oil firm which had increased pressure on Moscow following its intervention in Ukraine.

"It has led the BP board to conclude, after a thorough process, that our involvement with Rosneft, a state-owned enterprise, simply cannot continue. We can no longer support BP representatives holding a role on the Rosneft board,” a statement from BP said.

"The Rosneft holding is no longer aligned with BP's business and strategy and it is now the board's decision to exit BP's shareholding in Rosneft. The BP board believes these decisions are in the best long-term interests of all our shareholders,” the statement added.

Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, which began last Thursday, has been met by an outcry from the international community with the European Union, UK and US implementing a range of economic sanctions against the Kremlin.

Russia has been further isolated as its airlines have been banned from travelling in European airspace and a number of its banks have been kicked out of the SWIFT international banking system.