MOSCOW, September 27 - RAPSI. On Thursday, the West-Siberian District Federal Commercial Court upheld lower courts rulings to recover $86,500 in legal fees from TNK-BP Holding minority shareholder Andrei Prokhorov resulting from his lawsuit against BP Board chairpersons Peter Anthony Charow and Richard Scott Sloan, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com).

The court of third instance dismissed Prokhorovs appeal against the rulings of first and the appellate instances.

On August 6, the Tyumen Regional Commercial Court partially upheld Prokhorov's claims. Prokhorov had filed a suit for 288 billion rubles ($9.23 billion) in damages against BPRI and BP plc.

The legal action stems from the allegation that BP plc (parent company of BP Russian Investments Limited) and BP Russian Investments Limited, acting as TNK-BP Limited shareholders, forced their boards to turn down a proposal by TNK-BP Holding for a strategic partnership with Rosneft and a purchase of its shares. This missed opportunity allegedly resulted is losses for TNK-BP Holding.

In June, the West-Siberian Federal Commercial Court remanded the case to a different court.

At the same time, the court upheld Prokhorov's appeal that disputed the Tyumen Region Commercial Court decision of November 18, 2011, and the ruling of the Eighth Commercial Court of Appeals of March 12, 2012, when the court refused to uphold his claims.

According to BP attorney Konstantin Lukoyanov, the lawsuits against the BP companies were absurd and were a misuse of rights. He added that the first instance and the appellate courts confirmed that the lawsuits were frivolous.

According to Lukoyanov, the BP companies believe that the continuing appeals of the rulings, as well as the lawsuit itself, have nothing to do with the interests of TNK-BP shareholders or their company.

He added that referring the matter to the appellate court was also unlikely to result in success, as the lawsuit was groundless and further proceedings would only lead to greater legal expenses, which could also be subject to recovery.

On August 9, 2011, the Tyumen Region Commercial Court accepted the lawsuits filed by TNK-BP Holding minority shareholders to recover losses from top BP officials Peter Charow and Richard Sloan, as well as the holding's parent companies BP plc and BP Russian Investments Limited.
The shareholders maintained that Charow and Sloan must have known about the talks between BP plc or any other BP company and the Russian oil giant Rosneft.

The claims against the board members totaled 87.11 billion rubles ($2.79 billion), while claims of 409.28 billion rubles ($13.12 billion) were made against the parent companies.

BP, one of six oil and gas "supermajors," and Rosneft agreed to a share swap and to cooperation in the development of Russia's Arctic shelf in January 2011. However, the AAR Consortium, which represents the Russian TNK-BP shareholders, blocked the agreement. Talks came to a close in June.

Prokhorov believes that if TNK-BP had become a member of the strategic partnership between the two companies, then under the swap agreement it would have purchased about 1.01 billion common shares in Rosneft, which in turn would have increased in value and brought higher profits to TNK-BP. Therefore, he maintains that the difference between the current fair price of the shares and the price at which TNK-BP would have acquired the stake in the swap was lost profit.

BP Russian Investments Limited and BP plc hold that the claims are groundless as there is no proof of any loss.