OREANDA-NEWS. November 23, 2009. According to the joint statement by the shareholders of Russian-British oil company TNK-BP, Russian consortium Alfa Access Renova (AAR) and British BP, Maxim Barsky was appointed Chief Executive of the company effective January 2011, reported the press-centre of TNK-BP.

“TNK-BP Board of Directors has unanimously resolved that Maxim Barsky who is currently the company’s Vice President for Strategy and Business Development will take the post of the company’s next CEO on January 1, 2011”, the statement says.

Until then, Mikhail Fridman will continue to act as interim CEO, in addition to his role as Executive Chairman of the TNK-BP Board of Directors.

According to the statement, “to strengthen his international and industry knowledge, Maxim Barsky would spend the first five months of 2010 working in various upstream businesses of BP and its London Head Office”.

On June1, 2010 Barsky will return to TNK-BP in a senior executive role, joining the management team that has recently been strengthened by the appointment of Bill Schrader, former president of BP Azerbaijan, as TNK-BP’s COO.

Mikhail Fridman referred to the decision to appoint the new CEO as a significant milestone in the development of TNK-BP.

“This demonstrates that shareholders see eye to eye on strategy, governance and support for the company’s operational and financial performance. We are particularly grateful to independent members of the Board who play the key role in helping shareholders make important decisions”, said Fridman.

BP’s CEO Tony Hayward, in his turn, said that Maxim Barsky “is fully capable to lead the company into its next development phase”. He said that he was confident that the experience that Barsky would ain in the following year will help him to successfully achieve goals in the capacity of the company’s CEO.

Earlier, British shareholders of TNK-BP proposed Pavel Skitovich to the post of the company’s Chief Executive. Together with Barsky, Skitovich was appointed one of the company’s Executive Vice residents in June 2009.

Replacing the Head of TNK-BP was one of the key issues during last-year’s conflict between Russian and British shareholders. The conflict officially lasted for more than three months and ended on September 4, 2008 with the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding. AAR, as well as BP owns a 50% stake in TNK-BP, which is split as follows: 25% are held by Mikhail Fridman’s Alfa Group, while both Victor Vekselberg’s Renova and Leo Blavatnik’s Access Industries have 12.5% each.

TNK-BP established back in 2003 is currently listed among top ten private international oil companies.

The company owns production assets in Western and Eastern Siberia, as well as in Volga-Urals region. TNK-BP owns five oil refineries in Russia and Ukraine and retail net of 1400 service stations working under the brands of BP and TNK.