Translated material
Miller got rid of Ryazanov
Pre-election purges have begun at Gazprom
After a year and a half of personnel lull, a “bomb” exploded again in the management of Gazprom. Yesterday, one of the most active and “multi-disciplinary” deputy chairman of the concern’s board, Alexander Ryazanov, ended his contract, which was simply not renewed. Mr. Ryazanov is leaving not only his office on the street. Nametkin, but also the post of president of Gazprom Neft. A fundamental decision on this has been made and will soon be formalized by a decision of an extraordinary meeting of shareholders of Gazprom’s oil subsidiary.The post of deputy chairman of the concern is transferred to the head of the investment and construction department, a native of the St. Petersburg mayor's office during the Sobchak era, Valery Golubev. And Gazprom Neft will be headed by Alexey Miller’s long-time associate, Alexander Dyukov, who now works as president of SIBUR holding.
It is obvious that large-scale reshuffles are associated with contradictions within Gazprom regarding the strategy for developing the oil business. But it seems that there are more serious preconditions for the hasty removal of Mr. Ryazanov from all positions. The consolidation of Gazprom's human and financial resources before the election battles surrounded by the country's president was inevitable. The presence of foreign elements in the team of top managers (and Mr. Ryazanov is not one of the proteges of Alexei Miller and the main candidate to succeed the head of state, Dmitry Medvedev, who chairs the board of directors of the monopolist) has become too risky. Moreover, in the local battle for the financial flows of the group’s oil business, Alexander Ryazanov was able to win at the end of spring and maintain a certain independence in this area. Therefore, the fact that he was the first victim of Gazprom’s personnel purge is not surprising.
Although yesterday's decisions came as a complete surprise to both the retiree and those who were promoted. According to Vremya Novostei, they all learned about the turn in their destinies almost simultaneously with the appearance of the press release.
The nearest board of directors of Gazprom must approve the appointment of Mr. Golubev as deputy chairman of the board. As the head of the investment department, he headed the Gazkomplektimpex company, a 100 percent subsidiary of the concern, carrying out centralized procurement for the needs of the group. Now these responsibilities will be divided. The investment department, after approval by the board of directors, will be headed by Yaroslav Golko (now the first deputy head of the department), and Igor Fedorov (until now he was deputy) became the general director of Gazkomplektimpex. As the concern told Vremya Novostey, the procedure for changing the management of Gazprom Neft and SIBUR-Holding will officially begin on November 22. On this day, the directors of Gazprom Neft will decide to convene an extraordinary meeting of shareholders to re-elect the board of directors and approve a new president, and will also appoint Alexander Dyukov as interim head of the company. The Board of Directors of SIBUR-Holding will then approve Dmitry Konov (currently Senior Vice President) as President.
Alexander Ryazanov was one of the old-timers in the team of top managers of Gazprom. He joined the company a few months after Alexey Miller replaced Rem Vyakhirev as chairman of the board. Even then it was known that Mr. Ryazanov received the position of deputy chairman, to put it mildly, not on the initiative of his formal boss. During his 5 years of work at the gas giant, he was one of the most “dismissed” deputy chairman by rumor. However, he lasted much longer than other “non-Millere men.” Thus, the first deputy chairman, Pyotr Rodionov, “left” just a couple of months after his appointment, financial curator Vitaly Savelyev remained in his chair for less than a year, and Sergei Lukash was responsible for the security of the gas giant for a little over a year and a half. Moreover, Mr. Ryazanov systematically expanded his sphere of influence. He oversaw supplies to the domestic market, access to independent producers, sales of liquid hydrocarbons, gas purchases in Central Asia and sales in neighboring countries, as well as the petrochemical business (SIBUR, etc.) and the oil business. In addition, according to Vremya Novostei, it was he who oversaw the process of negotiations with foreign applicants for participation in the Shtokman LNG project, which was canceled just a month ago. And also headed a year ago the main acquisition of Gazprom in recent times - Sibneft, which, although renamed Gazprom Neft, was still left as an independent company. It is noteworthy that Mr. Ryazanov even planned to become a “St. Petersburg resident”: Gazprom Neft had already re-registered in the northern capital, and a few days ago he opened an exhibition of architectural projects for the future headquarters of the oil company in St. Petersburg.
It is with the development strategy of the concern’s oil block that one of Mr. Ryazanov’s most acute internal conflicts is connected. Another old-timer acted as an opponent - deputy chairman for production issues Alexander Ananenkov, who can celebrate a hardware victory. However, it cannot be ruled out that the victory may turn out to be Pyrrhic if the country's leadership decides to put into effect a system of checks and balances.
A year and a half ago, Mr. Ananenkov took charge of the issue of internal restructuring of Gazprom (although before that it was Mr. Ryazanov who led the topic of reforming the gas industry). Ananenkov’s concept of building a vertically integrated company, where the main “subsidiaries” have a minimum of independence and operate as LLCs, won. After purchasing Sibneft, Mr. Ananenkov wanted to extend this model to it. However, one objective obstacle arose - 20% of the shares of Sibneft belong to YUKOS, which Alexander Ryazanov skillfully took advantage of. Gazprom simply did not have time to make a buyout amid internal struggles before the bankruptcy proceedings began for Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s former company. As a result, Gazprom Neft and its president delayed the integration process.
However, maintaining the independence of the oil subsidiary in 2007 clearly did not fit into the political plans of Mr. Miller, who made a radical move. Perhaps not the last.