Russian bears have got their claws out for BP

One of the key positive aspects of equity investment is that you can buy and sell stakes in small and larger companies, safe in the knowledge prospective and existing owners of a business are being treated equally.

However, there are some examples where a particular sub-set of shareholders are offered preferential treatment – as investors in BP are now finding to their cost in Russia. At the end of 2009, BP outlined its strategy to use its improved safety performance and strong risk controls to significantly develop its operations in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (with management boasting it was both the largest acreage holder and oil producer in the region). Just four months later and this strategy was in tatters, with an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and subsequent leak from t...