TNK-BP CEO warns staff may have to leave Russia
June 30th, 2008 | by admin |MOSCOW, June 30 (Reuters) - International staff of Russianoil major TNK-BP may have to leave the country due to the firm’sfailure to settle working permit issues with authorities, thefirm’s chief executive said on Monday.
“We have been working with the Russian authorities andwithin Russian laws since April to resolve this issue, and willcontinue to do so,” Robert Dudley told Reuters via his pressservice. “However we have been given no grounds to believe theseissues will be resolved before senior international staff andtheir families will have to leave Russia. Unfortunately this nowappears very likely,” he said.
Dudley had earlier applied to the government of Moscow toextend working permits for a total of 146 internationalspecialists at TNK-BP, but the city’s office on Monday clearedthe request only for 71 specialists.
TNK-BP is half-owned by BP Plc (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and half by a group ofRussian and Russian-born billionaires, who have publiclycriticised BP and Dudley for excessive use of foreignspecialists. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova, writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov;editing by Robin Paxton)
