LONDON – International oil company BP, weakened and distracted by its troubles in the United States and Russia, is in danger of losing touch with the leaders in an industry where strength and focus yield the richest pickings. “I can't help thinking they've sort of lost their way. “Everywhere you look, they're falling behind,” said a senior executive of one rival this week. He spoke after BP agreed to swap its Russian assets, a quarter of its worldwide oil output, for $12.4 billion in cash plus 20 percent of the buyer, Russian state oil company Rosneft. The $27 billion deal would end a fraught relationship with the Soviet-born tycoons who co-own TNK-BP with BP. It may or may not solve BP's problems in Russia and could yet unravel, but the company had little choice than to throw its hand in with the government of President Vladimir Putin. Russia, like other resource-rich nations, is anxious to see as much of its oil money as possible staying at home, and is reversing the sell-offs of the 1990s. “Jury out, as ever, but in fairness to BP, this is a better outcome than many could have hoped for,” said Deutsche Bank analyst Lucas Herman in a note reiterating his “buy” recommendation for its shares. BP is as old as the modern oil industry itself, and has been in far worse scrapes before. A hundred years ago it had run out of money developing oil reserves in Persia (now Iran), and with no customers for its fuel, faced oblivion. “What a hell of a mess,” wrote John Cargill, the chairman of its top shareholder at the time.
