Russian state oil large
Rosneft Oil Co.
ROSN 2.86%
is shedding a number of senior executives and board members, a mind drain that stands to weaken a chief driver of the nation’s economic system whereas Moscow wages conflict on Ukraine.
Former German Chancellor
Gerhard Schröder
and
Matthias Warnig,
a longtime good friend of President
Vladimir Putin,
are leaving the board of administrators, the corporate mentioned Friday.
Chief Executive
Igor Sechin’s
two prime lieutenants, first vice presidents
Didier Casimiro
and Zeljko Runje, are leaving the corporate, folks accustomed to the departures mentioned. Their exit means Mr. Sechin, an in depth affiliate of Mr. Putin, must navigate a disaster in Russian oil markets with out his most skilled deputies.
Also exiting are Otabek Karimov, vp for commerce and logistics, and
Eric Liron,
vp for oil-and-gas providers, a number of the folks mentioned. Avril Conroy, who was head of retail operations, has already left the corporate.
All hail from outdoors Russia, underscoring how Rosneft relied on abroad experience to develop into one of many world’s greatest oil producers—and the way the conflict threatens to reverse that enlargement. Foreign executives introduced know-how about Western manufacturing strategies and enterprise practices. They helped to endear Rosneft to abroad traders, who owned its shares and lent it cash. And they strengthened hyperlinks with huge U.S. and European vitality corporations that partnered with Rosneft on tasks in Russia and abroad.
The firm misplaced out when non-public producers carved up Russia’s prime oil belongings within the Nineteen Nineties however fought again and now performs a pivotal function within the Russian economic system and international vitality market. A government-owned firm holds greater than 40% of shares in Rosneft and the agency describes itself as Russia’s greatest taxpayer. It churned out 3.9 million barrels a day of liquid hydrocarbons in 2021, in response to its annual report, sufficient to fulfill 4% of worldwide oil demand.
Mr. Casimiro responded to an emailed remark request with an excerpt from the Oscar Wilde poem “The Ballad of Reading Gaol.” The stanza describes two doomed ships passing in a storm and never acknowledging one another, with one line studying, “We had no word to say.”
Mr. Runje, Mr. Liron, Ms. Conroy and Mr. Karimov didn’t reply to requests for remark. A spokesman for Rosneft mentioned he didn’t know concerning the departures. The departures had been reported earlier by Reuters.
The timing of the exits could also be associated to European Union sanctions, in response to one of many folks accustomed to the matter. A ban on some contracts with sure state-owned Russian corporations, together with Rosneft, got here into pressure on May 15. Whether this additionally applies to employment contracts isn’t clear. Having residents of nations that imposed sanctions in opposition to Russia within the government ranks at state-owned corporations can be now seen as much less acceptable by the Kremlin, the individual mentioned.
Rosneft has come beneath stress for the reason that invasion. Stores of oil in Russia are filling up and manufacturing is falling on account of misplaced demand at house and overseas, in response to merchants, non-public analysts and the International Energy Agency. Rosneft and state-owned Gazprom PJSC face a longer-term problem to find options to Western applied sciences that governments have stopped corporations exporting to the Russian vitality trade.
Mr. Schröder was the German head of state from 1998 to 2005. He joined Rosneft’s board in 2017, and mentioned on the time that his involvement was within the pursuits of Germany. Earlier this week, Berlin’s ruling coalition sought to strip Mr. Schröder of parliamentary workplace over his ties to Mr. Putin. He was chairman of Rosneft’s supervisory board and was additionally nominated to affix the board of Gazprom, one other Russian vitality large.
Mr. Warnig, a German businessman, served as an agent in East Germany’s secret police, the place he solid a decadeslong friendship with Mr. Putin. He has been on Rosneft’s board since 2012. Mr. Warnig has additionally run Dresdner Bank AG’s Russia operations and the corporate creating the Nord Stream 2 gasoline pipeline venture, which was placed on maintain as a result of Ukraine disaster. The U.S. imposed sanctions on the pipeline firm and Mr. Warnig in February.
Spokespeople for Mr. Schröder didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. Mr. Warnig couldn’t be reached.
The departure of Mr. Casimiro may have the most important affect on the corporate’s operations, in response to the folks accustomed to the matter. An artwork collector in his spare time, Mr. Casimiro was born in 1966 and is from Belgium. He held senior positions at
BP PLC
within the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s earlier than transferring to TNK-BP, the British firm’s three way partnership with a bunch of Russian businessmen. He joined Rosneft in 2012, in response to the agency’s 2020 annual report, earlier than the corporate purchased TNK-BP in 2013.
Since then, Mr. Casimiro has at varied occasions overseen commerce, logistics, refining and petrochemicals. After being made first vp in 2020, Mr. Casimiro acted as a quasi chief monetary officer, one of many folks mentioned.
Complicating Mr. Casimiro’s place: He has been topic to U.S. sanctions since 2020, when the Treasury Department focused Rosneft’s buying and selling actions in Venezuela. He was president of Rosneft Trading SA, its Swiss buying and selling subsidiary, on the time, in response to the U.S. authorities.
Mr. Casimiro bought caught up within the worldwide dragnet once more shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine. In late March, the U.Ok. froze his belongings in a spherical of sanctions concentrating on different senior figures within the Russian vitality and monetary industries together with corporations comparable to Alfa-Bank JSC.
Mr. Runje joined Rosneft in 2012 after a profession at Exxon Mobil Corp. As first vp for oil, gasoline and offshore enterprise improvement, he was accountable for the corporate’s upstream manufacturing operations. He was additionally sanctioned by the U.Ok. in March.
Mr. Liron is a French nationwide who as soon as labored for U.S.-listed oil-field-services agency
Schlumberger Ltd.
, earlier than becoming a member of Rosneft across the time it took over TNK-BP. Ms. Conroy is Irish and labored for BP and Rosneft in Russia since 1998.
Mr. Karimov hails from Uzbekistan.
Write to Anna Hirtenstein at [email protected] and Joe Wallace at [email protected]
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