At oil companies, RAO UES, Gazprom and Transneft

Yesterday, the head of the Ministry of Energy, Igor Yusufov, at a press conference for the first time outlined his view on the prospects for the work of the ministry. Mr. Yusufov intends to return his leading role in organizing the work of the fuel and energy complex. In particular, in his opinion, the ministry should be involved in the distribution of oil export volumes - this function was taken away from it last year.

The Ministry of Energy should play a leading role in resolving key issues in the fuel and energy complex. Igor Yusufov never uttered these words, but it seemed that the new minister’s press conference was organized precisely for this phrase. One can understand him: the once influential organization under former minister Alexander Gavrin lost its power, Mr. Gavrin himself was fired with the wording “for a chronic inability to resolve emerging issues.”
Under Igor Yusufov, the Ministry of Energy intends to regain coordination of the volumes and directions of oil exports. This is currently being done by the government commission on access to export pipelines, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko. However, according to Igor Yusufov, 90% of the work in preparing the commission’s decisions is carried out by the Ministry of Energy. The ministry has prepared a draft decree according to which only mining companies will be allowed to access the export “pipe” (this provision is also in the current decree, but in practice it is not implemented). Oil companies will also have the right to export from 30% to 38% of production volumes (the exports of large oil companies already fall into this corridor).
The Ministry intends to deal with companies that have licenses to develop deposits, but are not engaged in exploration and development of subsoil in these areas. According to Mr. Yusufov, “if nothing is done demonstratively at the sites, they will be transferred on a competitive basis to more efficient subsoil users.” Thus, the Ministry of Energy intends to receive part of the powers of the Ministry of Natural Resources, which is responsible for issuing and revoking licenses.
According to Igor Yusufov, the Ministry of Energy should increase representation on the boards of directors of those fuel and energy companies where the state has a stake. First of all, in RAO UES and Gazprom, where there are “unacceptably few” representatives of the Ministry of Energy.
The minister especially noted his position regarding Transneft. According to him, it “is under the complete, total control of the Ministry of Energy.” The minister’s logic is simple: the Ministry of Energy defends the interests of the state, Transneft is a state-owned company, which means the Ministry of Energy should manage Transneft. It is unlikely that the head of Transneft, Semyon Vainshtok, will agree with this conclusion. Although Vice President of Transneft Sergei Grigoriev commented on Igor Yusufov’s words: “The minister and I have no disagreements - Transneft is not against control by the Ministry of Energy.”
Whether Igor Yusufov will be able to realize his plans depends on his hardware capabilities. He is not deprived of them: his track record includes work in the Ministry of Industry (responsible for the extraction of gold and diamonds) and the post of head of the State Reserve. But some of the minister’s ambitions may remain unfulfilled: it is unlikely that Viktor Khristenko, on whom oil export flows now depend, is a less skilled apparatchik than Igor Yusufov.

PETER Kommersant-SAPOZHNIKOV

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 145 dated 08/15/2001, p. 4

Authors:

Petr Sapozhnikov

The Ministry of Energy lacks influence