Gazprom showed its hand in the battle over the future of TNK-BP yesterday when it confirmed an interest in buying into the Anglo-Russian oil giant.

As Robert Dudley, TNK-BP’s chief executive, was being questioned by Russian police, Gazprom declared that it was keen to take a stake in its rival. However, Alexander Medvedev, its deputy chief executive, said that Gazprom would wait until TNK-BP had resolved the conflict between its British and Russian shareholders.

“Our shareholders said a year ago that if shares were put up for sale, Gazprom would consider a possible purchase,” Mr Medvedev said at a conference in France. “For the moment, there is a conflict among the shareholders in the company.” Mr Medvedev said that Gazprom would review its position after the conflict was settled at TNK-BP.

Many analysts believe that the Kremlin is behind the dispute as part of a campaign to push Russia’s third-largest oil producer on to a state-owned company such as Gazprom.

TNK-BP is 50 per cent-owned by BP and 50 per cent by the Russian billionaires Viktor Vekselberg, Mikhail Fridman, German Khan and Len Blavatnik, who have demanded Mr Dudley’s resignation, accusing him of acting only in BP’s interests.

Mr Dudley spent almost five hours at an Interior Ministry office in Moscow yesterday as police spoke to him as part of a tax investigation. He described the meeting as “very routine”, adding: “There were no problems. It was a review of TNK.”

A company spokesman said that he had been questioned as a witness over tax payments made at TNK between 2001 and 2003. TNK ceased to exist after the joint venture with BP was formed in 2003. TNK-BP retains legal responsibility, however, although Mr Dudley has never worked for TNK.

His interview came a day after prosecutors demanded documents from TNK-BP in a separate inquiry into alleged violations of immigration and employment law.

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