BP in Talks Over Tnk-bp Visa Row

BP was today in talks with the immigration authorities in Russia in a desperate bid to prevent TNK-BP chief executive Bob Dudley and other senior managers being forced to leave the country as the internal war between shareholders escalates.

The London-based oil major described the latest manoeuvring by the Russian investors led by oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, as "utterly disgraceful" and said it would severely disrupt the operations of a company which provides BP with a quarter of its total global oil and gas production.

"We are very disappointed to see that many of the expatriate staff working in TNK-BP will have to leave Russia and may not be able to return. The loss of these staff will definitely damage TNK-BP, its performance and by extension, the performance of the Russian oil sector," said a BP spokesman this morning.

The oil company wants the immigration authorities to speed up the processing of annual visas that are needed for Dudley and some 100 other foreign staff working in Russia at TNK-BP.

The process of visa renewal has been disrupted by Vekselberg and his partner German Khan who told the authorities that the business only needed around 63 new permits not the 150 applied for by Dudley. Dudley - an ex-BP executive - believes the company needs 150 permits to keep 100 foreigners in permanent work there.

Industry experts fear the Russian oligarchs want Dudley and other BP executives out of the country so that they can seize control of TNK-BP and perhaps later sell it on to the Kremlin through a deal with Gazprom or another state-owned energy group. Losing its half share in TNK-BP would be a major blow to the British oil group still recovering its reputation in the aftermath of the Texas City refinery fire and other problems in the US.

"We are both surprised and disappointed that TNK-BP management's properly authorized request has been denied, and that a process which the company has gone through without problems in previous years has been interfered with by two shareholders in the company's management, acting without authority in disregard of agreed and established internal processes," said the BP spokesman in London.