BP has confirmed that it has withdrawn a number of engineers from Russia and reassigned them elsewhere as corporate relations at its projects within the country continue to deteriorate.

The British company had been working alongside Russia's TNK in bringing skilled workers to help boost production levels at a number of exploration and production projects in Siberia.

However, since March, the pressure has been mounting on BP as employees assigned to the joint TNK-BP have been barred from working, through a combination of permit restrictions, physical force and, most recently, by a court order.

Now, BP has announced that all of its direct employees are to be pulled out of Russia, to be reassigned to other counties where expertise is also in high demand.

"There is a global shortage of skilled people in the industry," a statement from BT read.

"BP has numerous other ventures, for example, in Azerbaijan, the Middle East and the Gulf of Mexico, where their skills are needed and valued."

At present, just 60 BP workers remain in Russia, including chief executive Robert Dudley, though it is likely that they too will be forced out in the near future, prompting the company to seek a new arrangement for the exploration of the Siberian fields, which account for as much as a quarter of its global production.

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