When Robert Dudley, TNK-BP’s chief executive, warned on Thursday that a legal action brought against him by 16 Russian employees would “tear the company apart”, he expressed BP shareholders’ greatest fears.

Mr Dudley later glossed his remark to explain he meant the dispute with the Alfa-Access-Renova group of Russian tycoons that are BP’s partners in TNK-BP would “destroy value, [not] the entire company”.