February 1, 2011 By Citizen M

Digging for Dirt at TNK-BP

germandud_1815462c.jpgOh what mischief they get up to at TNK-BP.  Today’s Wikileaks scoop from the Telegraph reveals a whole world of junta-caressing, complot-spinning, Godfather-watching madness in the saga that sent Bob Dudley out of Russia in 2008, after a fiercely-fought battle with Darth Vader Igor Sechin.  German Khan’s ‘deranged’ antics deserves special mention.  The reports are copious, so here are just a few highlights:

Speaking to US diplomats in Moscow at the height of the crisis in June 2008, Mr Dudley said the Russian billionaires wanted to expand TNK-BP’s operations into Burma, Cuba and Sudan, “which posed problems for BP given US and other Western sanctions”. According to the embassy files, one of TNK-BP’s directors, German Khan, was behind the move. “Dudley said AAR and, in particular, German Khan, had been systematically using TNK-BP resources to vet these projects.”

Once rejected by the board, they were then farmed out to one of his own companies, Norbest.
When Mr Dudley refused to allow company resources to be used for vetting these projects, he accused Mr Khan of launching a campaign against him, the papers said.