Energy Blast – July 9, 2012

The AAR consortium, BP’s billionaire partners in TNK-BP, apparently plan to bid for half of the British oil producer’s 50% holding in the venture rather than buying the entire stake.  BP is, according to the Telegraph, facing a Serious Fraud Office investigation as a result of some of its operations in Azerbaijan.  Negotiations between Norway’s offshore oil workers and employers over pay and pensions have faltered for the third time.  Reuters examines the cost French major Total will have to bear as a result of a one-off tax on oil inventories  in France’s amended 2012 budget bill.