LONDON — BP PLC’s incoming chief executive Robert Dudley and the man he will succeed, Tony Hayward, are heading to Russia this week to build bridges with investors and the government, barely two years after Dudley was thrown out of the country in a corporate dispute.
The two men will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin and other officials on a brief visit that BP spokesman Toby Odone said marked a “handover.”
Warm ties with Moscow are a priority for BP, particularly in the wake of the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill, as Russia accounts for a quarter of the London-based company’s global oil output.
Investors in the country also may be key in BP’s plans to sell up to $30 billion in assets to cover spill costs, but CEO-elect Dudley has some networking to do after being thrown out of the country in 2008 amid a dispute at TNK-BP, the company’s 50-50 joint venture with a group of Russian oligarchs.
