Refuge for oil workers

Dozens of former Yukos employees are moving to Rosneft

The ranks of Rosneft managers have been replenished with another ex-YUKOS employee. Yesterday, the state-owned company officially announced that the former vice president for transport and logistics of YUKOS RM (the division responsible for refining and marketing of products), Alexander Sapronov, will take a similar position at Rosneft - vice president for logistics, refining and sales. And a source close to YUKOS claims that dozens of mid-level employees of the disgraced company do not compromise on political principles and go to work for the state-owned company, which became the second largest production company in Russia after the purchase of Yuganskneftegaz.

Mr. Sapronov became the third manager of Rosneft, having previously worked at YUKOS (before joining YUKOS, he was the president of the Russkiy Mir company, and in the mid-90s he served as deputy chairman of the antimonopoly policy committee). Back in February, the state-owned company announced that Mars Khasanov, who headed the Ufa branch of Yugansk-NIPIneft, which was part of the structure of YUKOS EP (YUKOS division engaged in exploration and production), became Rosneft's director of science. In addition, in February it was announced that Sergei Kudryashov, who was the manager of Yuganskneftegaz and vice president of YUKOS EP, was appointed first vice president of Rosneft. In turn, key positions in Yuganskneftegaz were occupied by managers of Rosneft-Perneftegaz, the largest producing subsidiary of the state holding.

The state oil company will probably continue to require more and more personnel. According to Rosneft's business plan for this year, recently approved by the board of directors, the state holding plans to produce 75.35 million tons of oil in 2005, including Yuganskneftegaz will increase production by 0.4% and bring it to 52 million tons . For other joint-stock companies, production is planned to increase by 7.9% - to 23.35 million tons. In general, the company's oil production volume will increase by 3.5 times compared to 2004. At the same time, in March of this year, Rosneft President Sergei Bogdanchikov announced a different forecast. “In general, the task that we set for Yuganskneftegaz is being fulfilled. Oil production this year should reach 54 million tons,” he said. The plan for Rosneft's production volume at 78 million tons was announced in February by the company's vice president, Yuri Matveev.

At the same time, Yukos production after the loss of Yuganskneftegaz decreased to 30 million tons per year. The company still has two main production companies - Samaraneftegaz and Tomskneft. However, the decline in production continues. At the holding's recent board of directors, its managers stated that this year's task will be to maintain production at least at a level exceeding 20 million tons of oil per year. In this regard, the company is significantly laying off employees. In the last six months alone, YUKOS has left, in particular, the project director of the YUKOS corporate finance department, Pavel Maly, who headed the corporate finance directorate of Brunswick UBS, and the YUKOS investor relations director, Alexander Gladyshev, who now works as an analyst in the London office of Merrill Lynch. Deputy Chairman of the Board and President of the sales division of YUKOS RM Petr Zolotarev moved to work at Basic Element. Yukos Vice President for Geology Alexander Afanasenkov also moved there. In June it became known that Yukos Vice President Oleg Sheiko headed the Troika Dialog representative office in Kyiv.

Denis REBROV