The trumpet is calling

Nikolai Tokarev is tipped for president of Transneft

The President of Transneft, it seems, will be appointed in the very near future. As you know, a month ago Vladimir Putin appointed the former head of the state pipeline monopoly Semyon Vainshtok to the post of head of the state corporation that will build facilities for the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014. Transneft could be headed by the head of the state-owned Zarubezhneft, Nikolai Tokarev , a high-ranking source in one of the relevant departments told Interfax yesterday. “This is the agreed position of all departments,” he said. Vice-president of the pipeline company Sergei Grigoriev told Vremya Novostey that he knew nothing about this. An extraordinary meeting of Transneft shareholders to elect a new president has not yet been scheduled, he said, but according to the law, the functions of such a meeting are performed by the board of directors, which must vote on the directive of Rosimushchestvo, signed by the Prime Minister. Therefore, if Rosimushchestvo has already submitted a draft directive to the government, then the appointment of the president of Transneft is a technical issue, since the agency was unlikely to be independent in this matter and did not receive appropriate instructions from the Kremlin.

Mr. Tokarev is considered a friend of Vladimir Putin from his work in Dresden. He headed Zarubezhneft in 2000, having previously worked as vice president of Transneft for a year. Therefore, work in the pipeline monopoly is familiar to him. In turn, at Zarubezhneft, he has, by and large, already completed his task: in 2004, the company was corporatized, and recently it consolidated the main foreign oil production facility of the Soviet Union - Vietsovpetro.

Zarubezhneft has recently been actively involved in government discussions on hydrocarbon production on the shelf. Last year, at the request of the Ministry of Industry and Energy, she assessed the increase in cost estimates for the Sakhalin-2 project, which was presented by foreign participants in the project led by Shell, and found it to be more fair. By the way, Gazprom made the same conclusion and, despite this conclusion, received control in the project. And yesterday, Mr. Tokarev’s adviser Vyacheslav Urmancheev, as reported by Interfax, proposed creating a state company for geological exploration and discovery of deposits on the continental shelf. At the same time, in his opinion, it is necessary at the legislative level to approve Gazprom as a state authorized company for exploration and production of gas on the shelf, and Rosneft - for exploration and production of oil. He suggested issuing licenses for shelf areas without competition. Mr. Urmancheev also believes that these state-owned companies should be entrusted with the formation of international consortia on a competitive basis with a Russian share of at least 51%. And in the Ministry of Energy, in his opinion, there should be such a structure as Rosmorneftegaz, which will prepare and ensure state policy in the field of development of the continental shelf, monitor development, and resolve issues of production at shallow and great depths.

A Vremya Novostei source, who, along with Zarubezhneft specialists, also worked on these proposals, says that he “heard that Mr. Tokarev was going to head Rosmorneftegaz,” but he does not know how accurate this information is. In any case, he argues, distributing shelf areas between Gazprom and Rosneft with an eye on international consortia is largely a political matter, and the current authorities are interested in putting a “proven” person there. And since at least another five to seven years must pass before the actual functioning of such a structure, raising the status of Mr. Tokarev by appointing him head of Transneft looks like a completely logical option.

Ivan GORDEEV