DAILY MAIL/MAIL ON SUNDAY WEB SITES
20 MAY 2007

BP MI6 SPONSORED COUPS IN AZERBAIJAN

NOTE: The screen-save shots below are taken from a Mail web page which was downloaded as an .mht web archive file on  25 May 2007. The screen-saves themselves were taken when viewing the file off-line on 7 July 2007 (hence the 7 July date displayed on the page frame. Although the original file was no longer available on the Mail web site by then, the article dateline of 20 May 2007 remains in the screen shot concerned).

For html versions of the article click here.

"When Lord Browne resigned as BP chief executive earlier this month after lying to the courts during a failed attempt to gag The Mail on Sunday, his supporters paid tribute to the buccaneering way he built the company into a global oil giant. But now a former BP employee has come forward to give the first insider's account of what the deal-making often entailed - sex, spying and briefcases full of hard currency... A former BP worker has told how he threw champagne-fuelled sex parties to help secure lucrative international oil contracts. The company also worked with MI6 agents to help bring about changes in foreign governments, according to an astonishing account of life inside the oil giant. Les Abrahams, who was involved with BP's successful bid for a multi-million-pound deal with one of the former Soviet republics [Azerbaijan]..... says he was persuaded to work for MI6 by John Scarlett - now head of the intelligence service but then MI6's Head of Station in Moscow. He passed information to Scarlett in faxes and at one-to-one meetings in the Russian capital. He further claims that BP was working closely with MI6 at the highest levels to help it to win business in the region and influence governments.....Some of Mr Abrahams' most intriguing claims surround the alleged co-operation between BP and the British intelligence services to boost the company's fortunes by securing a more pro-Western, pro-business regime in the country. He says the operation, masterminded by Scarlett in Moscow, contributed to the coup in May 1992 that saw President Mutilibov toppled by Abulfaz Elcibay, and then to a second change a year later which saw Haydar Aliyev take power - a move welcomed by the UK and US governments. Just months after Aliyev was installed, BP signed the so-called 'contract of the century', a £5billion deal that placed the firm at the head of an oil exporting consortium. ..... 'BP supported both coups, both through discreet moves and open political support,' said Mr Abrahams. 'Our progress on the oil contracts improved considerably after the coups.' Subsequently released documents from the Turkish secret service claimed that BP had discussed an 'arms for oil' deal, with the assistance of MI6, under which the company would use intermediaries to secure weapons to pass to Aliyev's supporters in return for the subsequent contract. When the documents emerged in 2000, BP denied supplying arms - although sources admitted that its representatives had 'discussed the possibility'. When the allegations were put to MI6, a Foreign Office spokesman on security matters said: 'We have no comment to make on intelligence matters.'"
Hookers, spies, cases full of dollars...how BP spent £45m to win 'Wild East' oil rights
Mail On Sunday, 20 May 2007