Moscow's Presnensky District court ruled to bar the TNK-BP CEO from office for two years in August. Dudley's lawyers claimed that the court had violated the principle of benefit of the doubt, while prosecutors said that Dudley had not been informed of the hearings and that TNK-BP had been given only 19 days to rectify violations instead of a month as the law states.
Dudley left Russia on July 24 after his visa expired, and had been running TNK-BP from abroad. BP, a 50% shareholder of the joint venture previously announced it was recalling the last 60 of 148 TNK-BP foreign staff citing performance problems following difficulties with issuing visas.
Labor inspectors brought new charges against Dudley in August over labor violations, saying the move had been initiated by Viktor Vekselberg, one of the four major Russian shareholders at TNK-BP, who have repeatedly called for Dudley's dismissal. The violations included higher pay and compensation packages for foreign employees at TNK-BP than for Russian staff.
TNK-BP is split 50-50 between BP and the Alfa Access-Renova (AAR) consortium of Russian billionaire shareholders, who were battling over management and strategy at the joint venture, which is Russia's third largest oil producer and accounts for a quarter of BP's overall output.
TNK-BP's Russian shareholders accused Dudley of acting only in BP's interests. The British oil major accused the Russian shareholders of orchestrating a state harassment campaign against TNK-BP and seeking to seize control of the venture.
On October 2, a lawyer acting for the plaintiffs said TNK-BP top managers had withdrawn their lawsuit against Dudley as shareholders had made a decision to remove Robert Dudley from his post as of December 1.
Dudley's removal was part of a deal British oil giant BP and its Russian partners reached last month, to end their protracted dispute.
The Moscow City Court also canceled the decision to fine Dudley 500 rubles and the Anglo-Russian oil company 15,000 rubles.
TNK-BP posted a net profit of $4.7 billion in the first six months of 2008 or twofold up year on year.
