Energy Blast – May 18, 2011

The media today is replete with grizzly details from the post-mortem of the BP-Rosneft deal; though the British major apparently retains hopes that the deal could at some future point be resurrected.  The Independent’s David Prosser argues that Bob Dudley’s hopes for further talks with Rosneft will come to little fruition.  Salvaging the original deal would be difficult, concurs the New York Times.  ‘This was a rehab deal to show that BP was still a player, could still do the big deals on the world stage‘, says one analyst quoted by the Washington Post, and its failure spells relapse.  Shell?  Exxon? Who might fill BP’s shoes in the Arctic, wonders this article.  Scenarios from Reuters gives some possible moves for Rosneft, TNK-BP, and BP in the post-Arctic deal context.  Some commentators, such as the Guardian‘s Nils Pratley, posit a somewhat more sanguine outlook for the British giant.  Andrey Kostin, CEO of VTB Group, gives his take in a Bloomberg video interview.  In further evidence of the desirability of the Arctic, a leaked government document quoted here reveals some of Denmark’s claims to the region.