BP suffers blow to Rosneft hopes as Igor Sechin quits

BP's planned $16 billion (£9.7bn) tie-up with Rosneft was looking even more uncertain yesterday after the deal's chief backer in Russia, Igor Sechin, stood down as chairman of the oil group.

Sechin, who is also deputy prime minister of Russia, resigned his Rosneft position after president Dmitry Medvedev ordered the removal of ministers from the boards of state companies as part of his campaign to separate politics and business.

BP's tie-up with state-controlled Rosneft is already blocked by a court injunction secured by BP's Russian partners in its TNK-BP venture, and analysts said Sechin's departure could reduce any political pressure on the oligarchs to drop their opposition.

Dougie Youngson, an oil analyst at Arbuthnot, said: "Now the Rosneft chairman has quit, it makes it even less likely the deal will go through."

TNK-BP is also understood to be mulling a legal claim against BP for damages of up to $10bn over claims it reneged on an undertaking to use TNK-BP as its main vehicle for investment in Russia.

TNK-BP's chief executive, Mikhail Fridman, is also the leading figure in AAR, the consortium of four Russia-connected billionaires which owns 50 per cent of TNK-BP. Sechin is expected to be replaced by Sergei Shishin, a senior vice-president of the VTB banking group.

Sechin's resignation came just two days before tomorrow's deadline for the planned share swap with BP. Sources close to the process said that in addition to trying to reach an agreement with AAR, which would allow the lifting of the injunction, BP is in talks with Rosneft about deferring the deadline.

Meanwhile, two of the world's biggest pension funds, Calpers and the Florida State Board of Administration, yesterday added their names to a growing list of BP investors planning to vote against management at its AGM this week over the Gulf of Mexico incident.