BP filed a notice of arbitration to Stockholm Tribunal to start the arbitration against Viktor Vekselberg’s Renova, 12.5% owner of TNK-BP. The British company accuses Renova of violating the shareholders agreement of TNK-BP, which was signed after the first conflict of shareholders in 2008. Under the agreement, TNK-BP has a primary right to exercise its shareholder profile projects in Russia and Ukraine. But through IES-Holding Renova retains ownership over gas and gas distribution assets in Russia and Ukraine (Gazeks) and the refueling complex in Yekaterinburg airport Koltsovo, also owned by it. Renova did not offer TNK-BP board of directors to buy the mentioned assets; therefore, the shareholder agreement was violated.

According to The Russian Mafia web-site (rumafia.com), the British company will try to prove that the Russian co-owners of TNK-BP were the first to formally violate the shareholder agreement. After signing the shareholder agreement, the question of acquiring Gazeks or its assets was not on the agenda of the board of directors of TNK-BP. The issue emerged last autumn, and the company got interested in the assets, but it never came to being discussed by the board. The refueling complex is also an asset in the oil business, but Renova is the sole owner, without the participation of TNK-BP