LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - David Peattie, the head ofBritish oil company BP's often fraught Russian business,is leaving to run privately-owned North Sea oil producerFairfield Energy, the companies said on Thursday.
The move comes as BP plans to sell its stake in its mainRussian investment, TNK-BP - one of the country's biggest oilproducers.
BP also said it appointed Michael Townshend, who is now incharge of company's business in Iraq, as BP's head in Russiastarting from March 1.
Townshend has worked in a number of countries for BP,including Azerbaijan, where the British major has recently had aseries of disputes with the local government over falling oilproduction.
He has been a non-executive director of BP's Russian jointventure, TNK-BP, since 2011. TNK-BP, Russia'sthird-largest crude producer, is in the midst of a $55 billiontakeover by state-owned Rosneft.
As a result of the deal BP would get two seats on Rosneft'sboard. Earlier on Thursday, Rosneft's head Igor Sechin said hewould welcome BP's CEO Robert Dudley to the board.
Peattie was one of a generation of managers at BP, includingformer chief executive Tony Hayward, that were seen as possiblefuture leaders of the company. He will continue to sit on theboard of TNK-BP until BP completes the sale of its half share toRosneft.
Fairfield Energy is owned by a consortium of private andinstitutional investors from Europe and North America led byprivate equity firm Warburg Pincus and investment houseRiverstone, where former BP CEO John Browne is a partner.
Peattie, a 32 years veteran of BP, succeeds Chris Wright atFairfield.
BP decided to sell its TNK-BP stake last year after years ofspats with its oligarch co-owners.
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