BP said on Thursday it will appeal against a Russian court ruling that it illegally used its own staff at its Russian venture, TNK-BP, which if upheld may ultimately cost the oil major around $400 million.
A Siberian court ruled on Wednesday in favour of Moscow brokerage Tetlis, a TNK-BP minority shareholder, which claims that TNK-BP`s use of 148 BP secondees is illegal because it amounts to a special dividend to BP at the expense of other shareholders.
BP has strongly denied the claim.
"We will definitely appeal the ruling," a BP spokesman told Reuters.
The legal battle around the use of the employees is a part of fierce dispute between BP, which owns 50 percent in the third-largest Russian oil producer, and four Russian-connected billionaire shareholders, who own the other half.
The two sides have publicly clashed during the past few months over the company`s strategy and management tactics, with the Russian side accusing BP of infringing their interests and demanding the BP-nominated chief executive quit.
BP earlier this week withdrew from Russia the last 60 of the 148 secondees who have been banned from work since Tetlis filed the suit in May.
Tetlis filed another suit with an arbitration court in the West Siberian town of Tyumen demanding that BP compensate for losses that arose at TNK-BP from the use of secondees.
TNK-BP has said the annual bill for the salaries and living allowances for secondees amounted to around $100 million or around $400 million between 2003 and 2007, the period specified in the suits.
A Tyumen court spokeswoman told Reuters by phone that the second suit could be heard only after BP`s appeal on the ruling on the first suit is heard but no earlier than in 30 days.
Apart from the BP employees, TNK-BP itself has had problems renewing visas and work permits for some of its key managers and former employees of BP, including TNK-BP`s CEO Robert Dudley.
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