Rosneft seeks $15bn from banks to finance stake buy in TNK-BP
RUSSIAN oil company Rosneft is understood to be talking to banks about raising $15bn (£9.2bn) in financing to buy BP’s stake in TNK-BP, following BP chief Bob Dudley’s meeting with Vladimir Putin to discuss the sale.
Putin met with Dudley, BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg and Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin to get an update on the transaction process, as well as discussing the British oil major’s commitment to Russia.
In June, BP announced it would start the process of selling its 50 per cent stake in Russia’s third largest oil company TNK-BP, and in July Rosneft said it was in talks to acquire half of the troubled venture.
A source close to the deal said there were a number of other interested parties in BP’s stake of TNK-BP, but their names had not been disclosed.