Igor Sechin-Russia's Sechin Wants Rosneft on BP Board-Report..

Russia's Sechin Wants Rosneft on BP Board-Report...

Russia's top energy official Igor Sechin would likeRosneft to get a seat on BP's board in exchange for giving BP a slot on Rosneft's, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The issue, which would "cement" the Arctic exploration partnership deal between Russia's largest oil company and BP, has not been decided, Russia's deputy prime minister told WSJ in an interview.

The Russian energy tsar also warned BP and its Russian venture, TNK-BP, that Rosneft may ask for compensation if the deal fails.

The BP-Rosneft deal, which involves a $16 billion (9 billion pounds) share swap, could open a new phase of upstream cooperation between the Kremlin and international oil majors, which have largely been shut out of new projects in Russia in recent years.

But it has drawn opposition from a group of tycoons who own half of TNK-BP and, arguing BP had violated a shareholder agreement by partnering with Rosneft, won an injunction to put the deal on hold. BP owns the other half of TNK-BP.

"I hope all the misunderstandings will be eliminated," said Sechin, the Rosneft chairman, adding that if the deal proves to be a failure, "Rosneft will calculate its losses from the failed deal and will ask for compensation from those who would have inflicted the losses."

He also said that there are no talks about a TNK-BP stake sale to Rosneft, as some Russian media have speculated.

Sechin was quoted as saying that Surgutneftegaz, Russia's fourth-largest oil producer, had no plans to sell its stake in Hungarian oil and gas group MOL despite protests in Hungary which sees the deal as a threat to its energy independence.

In his interview, the influential deputy prime minister voiced his opposition to suggestions that the oil price, currently above $100 per barrel, would shoot past $150 due to political unrest in the Middle East.

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