(Image source: Telegraph )

 

BY STEVEN SPARKMAN

 

Tension in the boardroom has apparently caused another CEO to step down at the oil giant TNK-BP. Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman unexpectedly resigned Monday. Here's euronews .

 

“Fridman’s resignation a further sign of a breakdown in the relationship between British oil firm BP and its Russian partners, a group of billionaires known as the Alfa-Access-Renova.”

 

The company was formed in 2003 as a joint partnership between BP and the investors at AAR. But while Fridman cited personal reasons for his decision, a source close to AAR tells the Daily Telegraph the resignation is just one more sign that the company is on its last legs.

 

“The Russian shareholders have lost faith in BP as a partner. This partnership appears to have run its course and we are most likely heading towards some kind of disengagement.”

 

The tension comes from repeated disagreements between the two halves of the company over who gets to make management decisions. The back and forth has left a string of collapsed deals in its wake. The Financial Times reports on the latest blowout.

 

“Relations were wracked by a fresh dispute last year when BP announced a strategic alliance with the Russian national oil champion Rosneft. AAR took BP to international arbitration over its claims that the deal with Rosneft, which later collapsed, breached a shareholder agreement...”

 

But while the Rosneft deal is the most recent, sources say AAR feels it’s BP who has been too litigious. What’s more, the Wall Street Journal reports the Russians apparently expect BP to sell their stake in the company, while BP thinks exactly the opposite.

 

“For its part, BP doesn't want to reduce its stake and believes that it is AAR that will ultimately sell, probably to a Russian state-controlled company, according to people close to the British company. The Russian partners nearly sold to BP and Rosneft for about $34 billion in cash and stock a year ago, but the deal fell apart at the last moment.”

 

The company says Fridman wasn’t involved in the day-to-day workings of the company, so the resignation shouldn’t affect operations.