More misery for BP

Things keep getting worse for BP’s Russian venture, which is now one of the world’s major oil producers. Today the company said it would reluctantly pull its remaining seconded staff out of the country after a prolonged row about work permits. This is merely the latest in a long string of disputes that the AAR consortium of four Russian billionaires which co-owns TNK-BP has raised with its British partners, which also includes trying to get rid of chief executive Robert Dudley. Until recently, BP seemed to have done all the right things in Russia – paying plenty of taxes, keeping on the right side of Vladimir Putin, maintaining a  line that if you perform well as a foreign investor, the Russians will want you to stay and will treat you right. Clearly that’s not the case in reality. Russia may hold important cards in the global energy game, but it still needs western technology and western buyers of oil and gas. Why is it treated as a paid-up member of G8 when its government sanctions this kind of intimidation against BP’s legitimate interests?