BP staff to get Russian permits

Russia's migration service has confirmed that it will issue work permits to executives working for BP's Russian joint venture, TNK-BP.

BP had expressed concerns that senior staff could be forced to leave the country after half of their requests were turned down this week.

Relations between the two sides of TNK-BP have recently deteriorated.

BP has accused certain Russian shareholders of trying to gain control of the business.

Meanwhile a group of major Russian shareholders have called for TNK-BP's British chief executive Robert Dudley to be removed from his post.

'Concessions'

Russia's migration service said it had approved permits for 49 foreign employees of TNK-BP.

Most would be cleared within 10 days, a spokesperson said, but chief financial officer James Owen, whose visa expires at the end of the month, will get his as early as Thursday.

"We are making concessions," Konstantin Poltoranin, a spokesperson for the migration service said.

"No-one will have to leave Russia," he said.

A spokesperson for TNK-BP said: "We hope that, following the clearance of a small group of top foreign managers, similar steps will follow concerning the remaining employees of the company."

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