The TNK-BP Management board consists of three representatives of British Petroleum and two Russian shareholders from the AAR consortium. The proposal to dismiss Dudley came from the Russian side.
A source close to the company's shareholders said the three BP representatives had voted against Dudley's dismissal and the two Russians for.
"The results of the vote are not a surprise because the three board members who opposed were appointed by Dudley himself," AAR CEO Stan Polovets said.
Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian billionaire and a member of the TNK-BP Management board of directors, proposed last week that TNK-BP Management shareholders hold an emergency meeting on Monday to dismiss CEO Robert Dudley and elect a new, independent executive.
He said the reasons for an emergency meeting were statements filed by Mikhail Fridman, chairman of the TNK-BP Ltd. board of directors, and Stan Polovets, executive secretary of the TNK-BP Ltd. board of directors, regarding rules of procedure and complaints from trade unions and a number of government agencies citing numerous violations of labor, migration and tax laws.
The ongoing row between four Russian billionaire shareholders in TNK-BP and the British oil major, each owning 50% in Russia's third largest oil producer, has been over strategy, with the Russian investors also demanding cuts in the number of foreign staff.
The Russian shareholders have accused BP of limiting TNK-BP's expansion abroad and demanded Dudley's resignation, whom they accused of putting BP's interests ahead of those of TNK-BP. The British giant has rejected all the accusations and demands.
Some analysts have suggested the TNK-BP dispute is over ownership. The ban on selling stakes in the firm expired in 2008. State energy companies Gazprom and Rosneft have been reported to be seeking a stake in TNK-BP.
