Another boss to step down from TNK-BP
BILLIONAIRE Mikhail Fridman yesterday said that he is likely to step down as acting chief executive of BP’s Russian joint venture TNK-BP, which will appoint a new permanent chief.
The void at the helm of TNK-BP is the result of a row over strategy and control that erupted last year between BP and the four billionaires, including Fridman, who share ownership of the company, which generated $5.3bn (£3.2bn) in profit in 2008.
Asked whether he would continue as acting chief executive, Fridman said: “It’s unlikely.”
TNK-BP’s board is due to meet this month to discuss candidates for the chief executive post.
Fridman, ranked Russia’s fourth-richest businessman by Forbes, was appointed interim chief executive in May in a move perceived as the final step by BP in ceding management control at the firm, which contributes a quarter of BP’s global oil production.
The last permanent head of the company, Robert Dudley, left Russia with a number of other expatriate workers at the height of the shareholder dispute. Tim Summers, until recently the firm’s chief operating officer, was acting chief executive before Fridman.
When Fridman was appointed in May, TNK-BP said it hoped to select a new chief executive by the end of this year. Two young executives were also appointed at the time to vie for the role.
The front-runner is seen as the Russian partners’ candidate, Mikhail Barsky, a 35-year-old former head of smaller oil firm West Siberian Resources.
BP’s nominee, Pavel Skitovich, ran gold miner Polyus Gold for five months in 2007 and worked as a Soviet diplomat in Uganda early in his career.
Sources have said that Fridman’s ally and another key TNK-BP shareholder, executive director German Khan, is the real power behind day-to-day operations at the company
The company was formed in 2003 as a result of the merger of BP’s Russian oil and gas assets and the oil and gas assets of Alfa Access Renova group (AAR).