July 3 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc will pull more than half the expatriate employees sent to work at its Russian venture TNK-BP from the country, signaling a legal battle with minority shareholders in the unit won't end soon.

BP will leave a team of about 60 employees in Russia ready to return to TNK-BP when a court injunction barring them from work is lifted, Vladimir Buyanov, a BP spokesman in Moscow, said by phone today. ``We've decided to keep about 60 people on standby,'' he said. ``Others will be withdrawn and placed at other BP projects around the world.''

A Russian court barred 148 BP specialists from working at TNK- BP in May after ZAO Tetlis, a TNK-BP shareholder, sued to annul an agreement that placed them at TNK-BP. The court case comes as BP battles for control over the Russian venture with billionaire partners Mikhail Fridman, German Khan, Viktor Vekselberg and Len Blavatnik.

``Effectively we are in a stalemate,'' said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Moscow-based UralSib Financial Corp. ``The only way out is the introduction of a new shareholder: a state company.''

BP's billionaire partners have repeatedly said they aren't interested in selling their shares.

TNK-BP paid an average $685,000 a worker, including salary, housing, travel and schooling costs, a year, Buyanov said in May, citing the employment agreement. BP has seconded between 150 and 170 specialists a year to TNK-BP since the venture was formed in 2003, he said.

Tetlis Demands

Tetlis has demanded the accord be scrapped and BP return payments from TNK-BP, according to court documents viewed by Bloomberg. The payments reduced TNK-BP's profit available as dividends, the documents showed.

Tetlis was founded by Alexander Tagayev and Vadim Zykov, who used to work for Alfa Group, a holding company controlled by Fridman and Khan. Alfa has denied any connection to Tetlis, which bought $40,000 of shares in TNK-BP's traded unit this year.

Separately, Russia's Federal Migration Service granted a new work permit today to Robert Dudley, chief executive officer of TNK- BP, along with seven other senior foreign executives of the company. TNK-BP has said dozens of its foreign employees may have to leave Russia in addition to the workers seconded from BP if they are not reissued work permits in coming weeks.

BP's billionaire partners are calling on Dudley to resign and have pushed for a smaller quota of work permits for non-Russians at the company.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Walters in Moscow gwalters1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 3, 2008 09:24 EDT