Top foreign executives at TNK-BP, Russia's third largest oil producer, have been granted a late reprieve on their visa problems. On Tuesday it appeared that many of TNK-BP's foreign employees would have to leave the country when their visas expired at the end of July. However, the migration service announced on Wednesday that the visas of 49 top executives would be automatically extended.
Furthermore, "we will speed up the process for those whose visas expire earlier," said Konstantin Poltoranin, a spokesman for the service.
Two conflicting applications were sent to the migration service, one for 63 permits by Russian partner German Khan, and the other for 150. Although a compromise of 71 places was proposed, no formal agreement was reached until Wednesday. This meant that many employees, including the CEO, Robert Dudley, were preparing to leave the country.
On Monday, Dudley informed approximately 100 foreign employees that "all expatriate staff may be affected, including myself, and may have no choice but to leave Russia by or before the end of July." However, the migration service's announcement on Wednesday means that this mass exodus will not be necessary.
This is the latest in a line of public disputes between BP plc, Europe's second largest oil company, and Alfa-Access-Renova Group (AAR) who both own 50 percent of the joint venture.
The four Russian billionaires who head AAR - Mikhail Friedman, German Khan, Len Blavatnik and Viktor Vekselberg - have accused BP of blocking the firm's expansion abroad and have demanded Dudley's resignation. In turn, BP executives have accused the Russians of trying to destabilize the business in order to gain control of it. Regarding the current dispute, AAR claimed that foreign specialists are too expensive and this is why they applied for only 63 permits.
"This is only about the fact that we want to optimize expenditure and forge a sensible approach to hiring costly foreign specialists," AAR said on Tuesday.
"Russia has enough talented and experienced managers and engineers," added Stan Polovets, chief executive of AAR. "We want to put emphasis on further training for Russian specialists."
TNK-BP is one of BP's key resources, accounting for a quarter of their output and 20 percent of their reserves worldwide. There are fears that these disputes could affect the company's performance.
Several of TNK-BP's drilling projects in Russia were suspended in March after employees seconded from BP were barred from work.
"Drilling capability has been devastated," Alistair Graham, who advises BP directors to TNK-BP's board, told Bloomberg.
These problems have occurred at an interesting time, with oil prices soaring 98 percent in the last year to a record high of $143. Last year TNK-BP posted profits of $5.7 billion.
By Ed Bentley
