By Vladimir SoldatkinMOSCOW, Oct 12 (Reuters) - A Russian court is likely to
throw out a $2.8 billion lawsuit against two BP
executives on the board of the British major’s Russian joint
venture, TNK-BP , after a judge denied plaintiffs more
time to secure the necessary shareholder support.Andrey Prokhorov, a minority shareholder in TNK-BP, filed
the lawsuit against Peter Charow and Richard Sloan, related to
BP’s attempts to sign a tie-up with state-controlled Rosneft,
despite a previous commitment by BP to use TNK-BP as its main
investment vehicle in Russia.However, Russian law on joint-stock companies stipulates a
plaintiff in such an action must own at least 1 percent of the
company’s shares for the case to proceed.Prokhorov does not have this threshold in TNK-BP, Russia’s
third-largest oil company, and a Russian judge on Wednesday
refused him more time to attract other investors to his case,
his lawyer and a lawyer for BP said.”Today the court, during preliminary hearings, thwarted the
plaintiffs requests to present them with more time so that other
shareholders would join the lawsuit,” Konstantin Lukoyanov, a
lawyer for BP, told Reuters by telephone.This means that the case should be thrown out on the date
set for a hearing on Nov. 10.It is a welcome court victory for BP, which is locked in
dispute with the other main shareholder in TNK-BP, AAR, a
grouping of Russian and Russia-connected oligarchs, over the
failed Rosneft share swap and Arctic exploration deal.ANOTHER LAWSUITProkhorov has also filed another lawsuit, claiming damages
worth 154 billion roubles ($5 billion), against BP Russian
Investments and BP Plc.Minority shareholders, headed by Prokhorov, claimed that
TNK-BP suffered damages over BP’s decision not to replace it
with the Russian venture in the Rosneft deal, which was signed
in January and collapsed in May after a legal challenge from the
four Soviet-born billionaires who own half of TNK-BP Ltd.The deal failed after the partners, operating as the
Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR) consortium, won an London court
injunction and several rounds of arbitration.The arbitration process, which is confidential, resumed on
Sept. 28 and is seeking to determine whether BP violated an
exclusivity clause in the TNK-BP shareholder agreement by doing
the deal with Rosneft and is liable to damages.AAR has said it has no connection with the suit brought by
the TNK-BP minority shareholders.The Kremlin has said it will not intervene in the dispute
and that consultations should continue at the corporate level to
resolve the matter.Rosneft has since struck a major exploration deal with U.S.
Exxon Mobil that covers the Arctic offshore exploration
blocks that were originally part of its deal with BP.
