After the signing ceremony in London, with Energy Secretary Chris Huhne and Rosneft chairman Igor Sechin in attendance, BP’s chief executive Bob Dudley said the deal “underlines our long term, strategic and deepening links with the world’s largest hydrocarbon-producing nation.” Rosneft’s president Eduard Khudainatov said it would allow his company to “utilise the experience and expertise of BP”.
But in Washington, where BP has few friends after the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year, some members of Congress expressed concern at the possible implications for US security.
At the start of the year, Russia opened its first oil pipeline to China, exporting 300,000 barrels a day.
The Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline will enable the Kremlin to command higher international oil prices as it now supplies both east and west.
