LONDON, October 19 (RIA Novosti) - BP could appoint the former head of Russia's metals giant Norilsk Nickel as the new chief executive of the Russian joint venture, TNK-BP, a British paper reported on Sunday.

"Denis Morozov, who left Norilsk in a management shake-up in July, is understood to be one of the names to make a final short list drawn up by Whitehead Mann, the recruitment agency that is leading the search to fill the top job at TNK-BP," The Sunday Times said.

The Russian-British joint venture TNK-BP was embroiled in a shareholder conflict earlier this year, in which BP and its Russian billionaire co-owners clashed over strategy, management and control of the third largest oil producer in Russia.

Robert Dudley, the current head of TNK-BP, fled Russia in July amid what BP alleged was a harassment campaign orchestrated by authorities. The British and Russian partners came to terms in September. Under the deal agreed by the parties, Dudley will leave TNK-BP by December to be replaced by an executive from outside BP with extensive Russian experience.

According to The Sunday Times, BP is expected to make a decision on the Russian joint venture's top job within the next two weeks.

Other names on the list are thought to be Peter O'Brien, a former Morgan Stanley banker and vice-president of Rosneft, and Pyotr Galitsyn, head of the Russian unit of BASF, the chemicals group, the paper said.

However, Morozov, who has worked for around 10 years at Norilsk Nickel, is seen as the frontrunner as he is "a highly respected executive accustomed to running large, oligarch-controlled industrial groups," the paper said.