Hot on the heels of the Kremlin taking back ownership of Shell’s Sakhalin-2 project, the Kremlin has issued a chilling warning to BP about its future in the country. A key Kremlin official has warned BP that it has no choice but to accede to Russian demands with its latest project, or face crippling sanctions.
The head of the federal subsoil agency RosNedra, Anatoly Ledovskikh, has said that TNK-BP must accommodate Gazprom’s refusal to let it build a pipeline into China. This is not an objective reason to change the licensing agreement… I very much hope that TNK-BP and Gazprom reach an agreement. They have no choice,” he said.