Sibneft is cleaning up its ranks
At the Omsk Refinery
Yesterday, the entire management of the Omsk Oil Refinery, part of the Sibneft company, was dismissed. According to Sibneft managers, the work of the displaced managers was ineffective. Now the plant will be managed directly from Moscow.

The capacity of the Omsk Refinery allows it to annually process 19.5 million tons of oil (13.1 million tons were processed in 1998). The plant ranks first in Russia both in terms of fuel production volumes and efficiency. The output coefficient of “light” petroleum products (gasoline, kerosene, etc.) at the Omsk Refinery is 81.6% (the Russian average is 62.7%).

In April, Sibneft began exchanging its shares for securities of its subsidiary Omsk Oil Refinery JSC (ONPZ). For one ordinary share of the plant, the holding offered four of its own (one preferred share of Omsk Refinery was valued at three shares of Sibneft). Now the share of voting shares of the Omsk Refinery owned by Sibneft has increased from 51% to 67%.
Yesterday Sibneft decided to take advantage of its increased influence on the enterprise. As the AK&M agency reported, all top managers of the plant were removed from their posts. The general director of the Omsk Refinery, Alexander Meling, his deputy for economics, Vladimir Panchenko, and his deputy for finance, Alexander Breize, as well as the chief engineer of the enterprise, Boris Nikiforov, lost their seats. As Kommersant was told at Sibneft, the reason for the resignation lies in the insufficient efficiency of their work.
According to Kommersant's information, some of the fired managers will be offered work either at the plant or in the holding company. For example, Meling was asked to oversee strategic issues related to the activities of the Omsk Refinery, but as an employee of Sibneft. It is possible that in this way the holding decided to neutralize the dismissed team in order to reduce the likelihood of retaliatory actions on its part. After all, organizing strikes, petitions to the State Duma and opposition from local authorities are traditional ways for dismissed managers to defend their rights. But, according to Sibneft President Evgeny Shvidler, changes in the management of the Omsk Refinery will not cause any shocks, since “all of them have been agreed upon with the regional administration.”
Shvidler says that the reshuffle was carried out in order to simplify work with the subsidiary structure: the Moscow office of Sibneft will handle strategic planning, and the new managers of the oil refinery will only have to solve current problems and carry out the directives of the holding.

PETER Kommersant-SAPOZHNIKOV

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 201 dated 02.11.1999, p. 4

Authors:

Petr Sapozhnikov