BP continues to face turbulent times in the wake of Deepwater Horizon with a stormy Annual General Meeting in London and a possible deal collapse in Russia.
The AGM attracted a number of protesters, amongst them UK trade unionists and US fishermen, to the venue in London, some of whom briefly managed to disrupt the meeting.
During the meeting the BP Board faced questions from shareholders, including global pension funds, about environmental issues and Board remuneration. The outcome of votes on the latter, and the re-election of the company's Chairman of its Safety and Governance Committee, Sir William Castell, were still to be announced.
Another issue overshadowng the meeting, and BP's legal and financial teams, is the ongoing deal with Russian oil giant Rosneft. The £10bn ($16bn) share exchange between the two companies is looking increasingly doubtful after an arbitration panel blocked the deal. The injunction came from TNK-BP, another Russian-BP joint venture which TNK-BP and partners Alpha Access Renova (AAR) believes is still in place.
The Rosneft-BP venture includes Arctic exploration and BP claims it has offered a range of options to buy AAR out of the TNK-BP organisation including a share of the Artic operations. However, AAR remains unhappy with the potential new BP-Rosneft partnership and are set to continue to block the deal. Rosneft has agreed to a request from BP to extend the agreement for a further month while it attempts to resolve the issue.