(Financial Times) -- Bailiffs searched the Moscow offices of BP in Moscow on Wednesday, adding to the UK-based oil major's woes in Russia a day after ExxonMobil stole a march on it by signing a historic Arctic exploration deal with Russian oil major Rosneft.
BP officials said the search was related to a lawsuit by minority shareholders in TNK-BP who are suing for USD 3 bln over the collapse of a similar tie-up between BP and Rosneft earlier this year.
Andrei Prokhorov, a Russian businessman who filed the suit in July, alleged that two BP executives who sit on the board of TNK-BP must have known about the UK group's negotiations with Rosneft, and their failure to inform TNK-BP caused damage to the company.
The lawsuit was upheld by a court in Siberia's Tyumen region in July. BP has said the minority shareholders were pursuing a ⌠groundless action that it would vigorously contest.
BP on Wednesday said it believed there ⌠are no legitimate grounds for the raid this morning. The offices being raided belong to BP Exploration Operating Company, a subsidiary which ⌠has no connection with the process in Tyumen and is not engaged in any shareholder dispute. The company added that it would ⌠defend its interest vigorously and believed there are ⌠no grounds for damages.