A minority shareholder in BP PLC's (BP) Russian joint venture TNK-BP Holding (TNBP.RS) Thursday almost tripled his claim for damages from the U.K. oil major in relation to a failed exploration deal with OAO Rosneft (ROSN.RS) to 409.3 billion rubles ($13 billion) from RUB154.3 billion, the legal firm representing him said.

Andrey Prokhorov, the shareholder in TNK-BP Holding--the listed unit of TNK-BP Ltd. in which BP owns half--is seeking compensation from the U.K. company, alleging it unlawfully blocked a bid by TNK-BP to replace BP in an Arctic exploration alliance with Rosneft that collapsed in May.

The complainant's law firm Liniya Prava said in a statement that the increased damages claim is linked to the loss of profits "from a number of projects in the Arctic shelf...in which TNK-BP would have participated in the event of a strategic alliance with Rosneft."

"The claim is absurd, groundless and has no connection with law," BP said in an e-mailed comment to Dow Jones Newswires. "As there was not and could not be any damage arising, estimation of damages depends only on so-called claimants' fantasy."

This is the second time Prokhorov has increased his claim for damages from BP. On Sept. 21 he almost doubled the sum to RUB154.3 billion from RUB87.1 billion due to the "loss of profits from a number of international projects, in which TNK-BP would have participated in the event of a strategic alliance with Rosneft."

The next hearing is scheduled on Nov.11.

Prokhorov alleges that BP executives, who until recently served as board members of TNK-BP Holding, were responsible for losses caused by preventing the joint venture from taking BP's place in the Rosneft deal.

BP has previously said no losses were in fact incurred by TNK-BP and the BP-appointed board members to TNK-BP acted in the best interest of the company.
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