BP could appoint the former head of Norilsk Nickel, the Russian mining giant, as the new chief executive of its Russian joint venture, TNK-BP, within the next two weeks.

Denis Morozov, who left Norilsk in a management shake-up in July, is understood to be one of the names to make a final short list drawn up by Whitehead Mann, the recruitment agency that is leading the search to fill the top job at TNK-BP.

Other names in the frame are thought to be Peter O’Brien, a former Morgan Stanley banker and vice-president of Rosneft, and Piotr Galitzine, head of the Russian unit of BASF, the chemicals group.

Morozov, a highly respected executive accustomed to running large, oligarch-controlled industrial groups, is seen as the frontrunner. He is also known to be on the short list for at least one other chief-executive role at a big Russian industrial group and has been in high demand since he was forced out of Norilsk in July, a casualty of the tussle for control of the mining company between Vladimir Potanin and Oleg Deripaska.

BP is expected to make its decision within the next two weeks.

The Kremlin would also be comfortable with O’Brien, who has a good relationship with Igor Sechin, head of the Rosneft oil company and Russia’s deputy prime minister.

The TNK-BP job is one of the most challenging in the industry. BP and the four Russian oligarchs with whom it shares equal ownership of the company became embroiled in an extraordinary row this year over management and expansion plans for the third-largest oil producer in Russia.

Robert Dudley, TNK-BP’s current boss, fled Russia in July amid what BP alleged was an orchestrated campaign of harassment by the Russian authorities. The episode damaged Russia’s corporate image.

The two sides ended several months of public acrimony in September. One condition of the truce was that Dudley would leave the company by December and be replaced by an executive from outside BP with extensive “Russian business experience”.

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