A SECOND senior director of BP's Russian joint venture TNK-BP has quit the troubled business in less than a month, it has emerged.

BP is locked in an increasingly bitter struggle for control of the joint venture with its Russian shareholders.

Tony Considine, head of TNK-BP's downstream business, is leaving after five years "to pursue other opportunities," the company said.

His resignation closely follows that of chief financial officer James Owen, who resigned in early August citing the continuing battle over the venture as the reason.

Last month, chief executive Robert Dudley quit Russia to run the business from a secret location due to "sustained harassment".

The campaign has seen TNK-BP offices raided by the Russian authorities, BP staff barred from obtaining work visas and criticism of BP management from a billionaire Russian shareholder.

A Russian court barred Mr Dudley from working in the country for two years earlier this month.

BP, which is appealing the decision, said Mr Dudley would continue to run the company from abroad until the completion of the appeal process.

BP owns 50 per cent of the Moscow-based company, formed in 2003, while a consortium of Russian investors - AAR - owns the other half. But the two parties in the joint venture have clashed over management and strategy.

The dispute is a serious blow for BP as the joint venture accounts for a fifth of the group's reserves and a quarter of production.

Mr Considine has headed up the refining, trading and marketing businesses since TNK-BP began operations five years ago. He will leave next month.

In the first half of this year BP posted posted half-year profits of US$13.44bn (£6.75bn) - 23pc ahead of the previous year - as the firm reaped the benefit of record oil prices.

But it said of the TNK-BP conflict: "Currently it is not possible to predict the ultimate outcome if these matters remain unresolved."

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