Maxim Barsky was appointed the chief executive of the Russian-British joint venture TNK-BP on Thursday, the TNK-BP board of directors said.

Barsky, who will take up the post on January 1, 2011, is currently the oil company's executive vice president for strategy and business development.

Mikhail Fridman will continue to act as interim CEO, in addition to his role as executive chairman of the TNK-BP Board of Directors, until the end of 2010.

The board said Maxim Barsky would spend the first five months of 2010 working in various upstream businesses at BP and BP's head office in London "to deepen his international and industry knowledge."

As of 1 June 2010, he will return to TNK-BP in a senior executive role, "joining the management team that has recently been strengthened by the appointment of Bill Schrader, former president of BP Azerbaijan, as TNK-BP's chief operating officer."

"This is a significant milestone in the development of TNK-BP," said Mikhail Fridman. "It demonstrates that the shareholders are united on strategy, governance and support for the company's robust operational and financial performance."

BP's CEO Tony Hayward said: "I am pleased that the shareholders of TNK-BP have agreed this plan. We are all agreed that Maxim Barsky has the capabilities to lead the company into its next phase of development, and confident that the further experience he gains in the coming year will fully equip him for the task of CEO."

Before joining TNK-BP, Barsky was managing director and a member of the board of directors of West Siberian Resources, an independent oil and gas company with operations in Russia.

The appointment comes after a long-running dispute between BP and Russian billionaire shareholders over strategy, management and control of the company.

MOSCOW, November 19 (RIA Novosti)