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Reshuffle imminent in TNK-BP management
BP and its partners in TNK-BP have agreed to change the management of their Russian oil venture, a newspaper reported after top level talks between BP and its partners over the future of the company.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:04 August 2, 2008
Moscow: BP and its partners in TNK-BP have agreed to change the management of their Russian oil venture, a newspaper reported after top level talks between BP and its partners over the future of the company.
BP's CEO Tony Hayward met TNK-BP shareholder Mikhail Fridman on Wednesday in Prague, kicking off a round of intensive talks on the company's future.
Fridman and Hayward were not necessarily involved personally in ongoing talks, sources on both sides told Reuters earlier.
A source familiar with the situation told Reuters the talks were unprecedented since the outbreak of a public struggle for control of the venture in late May.
"Hayward and Fridman agreed to end the shareholders' war. The main condition is a complete changeover of TNK-BP's top management," Vedomosti business daily reported, citing an unnamed source.
Vedomosti said BP has four to six months to nominate a new chief executive to replace embattled American chief executive Robert Dudley, who left Russia last month after failing to renew his visa.
Under TNK-BP's founding document, the 2003 shareholders' agreement, BP has the right to nominate the chief executive and its partners, a consortium of Soviet-born billionaires, have the right to nominate the chairman of the board.
Fridman, currently serving as chairman of the board, may also step down.
Dudley is accused by BP's partners of managing the company in the interests only of the British major. He has been a flashpoint in the conflict between TNK-BP's powerful owners.
Dudley said he and his company had suffered a campaign of harassment. He is currently managing the company from an undisclosed location in central Europe, BP said.
BP remains under intense pressure in Russia. It faces tax and labour inspection checks and is fighting several cases.
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