| Gazprom made personnel changes in the East and Kuban After some lull in Gazprom, changes took place again in the management of its production subsidiaries. And although changes took place in two peripheral enterprises of the concern - Vostokgazprom and Kubangazprom, they are directly related to the second stage of monopoly reform announced by Alexey Miller. The other day, the president of Vostokgazprom, which provides gas supply to the Eastern Siberian regions, Sergei Zhvachkin announced his resignation from the company in connection with his transfer to the position of general director of another Gazprom subsidiary, Kubangazprom. The official presentation of the new leader in Krasnodar will take place in September after the end of the holiday season. The current head of Kubangazprom, Yuri Basarygin, who turned 60 years old and his employment contract ended in May, will retire. Mr. Zhvachkin was tasked with separating from Kubangazprom all activities not related to gas transportation, completing the onshore part of Blue Stream, and normalizing the dialogue with the regional administration. Mr. Basarygin has recently had poor relations with the authorities. Mr. Zhvachkin’s place will be taken by his first deputy for finance, Vitaly Yakovlev, who before Vostokgazprom worked in the Moscow office of the international financial and auditing company KPMG.
Sergey Zhvachkin joined the management of Vostokgazprom at the time of its founding in 1999. At that time, this company was supposed to be the conductor of Gazprom’s expansion into Eastern Siberia and subsequent entry into the export markets of the Asia-Pacific region. Mr. Zhvachkin did not hesitate to talk about the fact that it was Vostokgazprom that would receive the functions of a single channel for gas exports in the eastern direction. However, the active promotion of the state monopoly to the east has not yet taken place, and the concern has again started talking about grandiose plans to create a unified gas supply system in this part of the country quite recently. Their implementation is not a matter of the very near future. In this sense, the transfer of top manager Mr. Zhvachkin, experienced in the gas business, to the southern front, where there is a number of tasks that require a speedy solution, looks logical.
At the same time, the ex-head of Vostokgazprom, although he started working under Rem Vyakhirev, confirmed his loyalty to the new leadership. With his direct participation, the concern's stake in Vostokgazprom was increased from 51 to 100%. This is important, since the company was initially created with an eye to the possible withdrawal of this asset from Gazprom. The second shareholder of Vostokgazprom with a 49 percent stake was the Hungarian bank AEB, which was controlled by Vyakhirev’s associate Mikhail Rakhimkulov.
The fact that Gazprom has not lost control over the company apparently has some merit to Mr. Zhvachkin. Subsequently, Gazprom quite easily bought a 49% stake in Vostokgazprom.
Kubangazprom is not the largest and most promising of Gazprom's subsidiaries, but nevertheless it is an important link in gas exports to Turkey via Blue Stream. And the position of its director introduces its owner into the circle of gas generals, in contrast to the generally peripheral Vostokgazprom. Kubangazprom's gas production volume in 2003 amounted to only 1.6 billion cubic meters of gas, liquid hydrocarbons - 154.6 thousand tons, and revenue - a little more than 8 billion rubles. However, he still has to increase the capacity of Blue Stream to 16 billion cubic meters per year, as well as go through the second stage of reform. To ensure the pumping of the required volumes of gas to Turkey, the Beregovaya compressor station is being built. As for transformations, the deputy chairman of the board of Gazprom, Alexander Ryazanov, spoke about the need to completely clear transportation from other types of activities a year and a half ago. Kubangazprom is included in the list of four transport subsidiaries of the concern, which include non-core activities (gas production or processing). They will be converted first.
In addition, Sergei Zhvachkin will have to establish relations with the administration of the Krasnodar region, which was not satisfied with the activities of Yuri Basarygin. A criminal case against him, closed in 2002, on charges of tax evasion was reopened in June. According to unofficial data, the “law enforcement” activities were organized by the regional administration, which sought from Gazprom to re-register Kubangazprom’s fixed assets in the region (they are now on the balance sheet of the parent company). So the new head of the Kuban “daughter” will have to work in difficult conditions. Alexey GRIVACHS |
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