RusEnergy

24.02.2005 MosNews - The experience of British Petroleum in Russia has been positive despite concerns raised among foreign investors by the Russian government's move to take over the embattled Yukos oil company. Such an opinion was voiced by BP's CEO John Browne on Wednesday, Feb. 23, while speaking at the Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC. "I think it is fair to say that the experience of investing in Russia generally has been very positive, with the usual ups and downs," Browne was quoted by Reuters. British Petroleum is the world's second-largest listed oil company by market capitalization and the biggest single foreign investor in Russia. It holds a 50-percent stake in TNK-BP, Russia's third-largest oil producer, with an $8 billion investment. Browne made no direct mention of Russian tax authorities' pursuit of $27.5 billion in back taxes from Yukos, which used to be the largest Russian oil exporter. The action, widely seen by analysts and investors as a Kremlin move to destroy the political ambitions of Yukos' former owner, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has cast a shadow over foreign investment in Russia's oil sector. The BP chief did acknowledge that for some companies, "Russia remains a dark and hostile place —- a source of risk rather than of opportunity." Although Russia's Natural Resources Ministry this month moved to bar foreign-owned firms from bidding on some of its biggest oil projects, Browne said BP holds a "very satisfactory" position in the giant Sakhalin field through a joint venture with state-owned Rosneft Oil Company.