Court orders $13bn BP lawsuit to be heard again The case, brought by minority shareholders in the company's TNK-BP joint venture, had been rejected and was in its final stages of appeal, but will now have to be heard again from the start. BP had hoped it would be thrown out after a similar claim against two of its directors on TNK-BP's subsidiary board was rejected last year. BP, though, believes it can release information under the terms of the partnership, which states that both parties have to negotiate "in good faith" for 135 days should one side want to sell. BP sources also claimed AAR did not have a veto or a right of first refusal. "We have a contractual right to sell," a BP spokesman said. We will meet our obligations under the shareholder agreement and expect AAR to do the same. We look forward to hearing from AAR directly. Rosneft, the state-owned oil giant, is thought to have expressed its interest, which would pitch the oligarchs into battle with the Kremlin. AAR has made it clear it only wants a partner with technical expertise such as deepwater drilling, which Rosneft does not have. President Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, is said to have instructed former deputy prime minister Igor Sechin, who was recently made Rosneft's chairman, to build a national oil champion. On Monday shares in TNK-BP recovered a little from their 10pc fall on Friday after BP revealed its sale plans, as analysts doubted whether BP was serious. Mikhail Rotaev, an analyst at Renaissance Capital, said: "To sell its biggest Russian investment would be illogical."