BP said today it will withdraw its last secondees to TNK-BP from Moscow earlier than planned, amid an escalating battle for control of the Anglo-Russian company.

A spokesman for BP said that its 60 remaining technical specialists, who had been assigned to work on a temporary basis for TNK-BP, were being pulled out of Russia with immediate effect.

The decision follows the departure of 88 other secondees over the past month after a dispute over their work permits in March.

BP said a further 49 permanent, foreign staff of TNK-BP - many of whom formerly worked for BP - will remain in Russia, although there are still questions over the status of the company’s chief executive, Bob Dudley and another junior member of staff.

In a statement today, BP said the specialists had been unable to provide services to TNK-BP since March after work visa complications.

It added that once this problem had been dealt with “they were prevented from returning to their duties by security staff in TNK-BP” and subsequently by a court injunction.

Despite the lifting of this injunction by a court in Omsk, a statement from BP said there was no indication that such attempts to interfere with BP’s ability to deliver technical support would be resolved any time soon.

Lamar Mckay, BP’s executive vice president said the decision to pull out the company's remaining secondees, including geologists and petroleum engineers from a range of countries including the UK, had been taken “reluctantly”.

“These technical experts have played a huge part in making TNK-BP one of Russia’s most successful oil companies in the past few years,” he said.

“Since it was formed in August 2003 the company’s oil output has grown by an annual average of 5.8 per cent. It has also paid some $70 billion in taxes and duties as well as $20 billion in dividends to its shareholders.”

BP described their redeployment as a “business decision”, citing a global shortage of skilled people in the oil and gas industry.

BP said they would be transferred to a range of other projects where there was a demand for their specialist skills - in Azerbaijan, the Middle East and the Gulf of Mexico, for example.

BP, which has owned 50 per cent of TNK-BP since 2003, has been locked in a fierce battle for control of the company with its co-owners, the AAR consortium which represents four Russian billionaires.

AAR has claimed that TNK-BP’s foreign secondees are a waste of money and have argued they should be replaced by Russians. They are also trying to dislodge Mr Dudley from his position as chief executive.

BP has accused AAR of “corporate raiding” of the kind that was widespread in the Russia of the 1990s.

AAR appeared to have scored a tactical victory yesterday after the company announced an unexpected deal with Venezuela. It follows months of angry exchanges between the two sides about a proposed expansion abroad.

BP wants TNK-BP, Russia’s third largest crude producer, to focus on domestic production while AAR has been pushing to pursue a variety of international opportunities.

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