New people may appear on the board of directors of Rosneft - the chairman of the board of Gazprombank Andrey Akimov and the president of Transmashholding Andrey Bokarev. They were nominated by Rosneftegaz (it owns 69.5% of Rosneft shares) together with the Federal Property Management Agency. The company representative did not say why they were proposed. There are nine seats on the board, three of which are occupied by independent directors.

Gazprombank is a long-standing financial partner of Rosneft. In March 2013, on the eve of the deal to purchase TNK-BP, the bank issued Rosneft a loan of 184.38 billion rubles, including interest. Three days later, the company repaid the money. In early August - late September 2013, Rosneft managers took out a loan of 3.1 billion rubles from Gazprombank to purchase the company's shares: Rosneft President Igor Sechin then purchased shares worth almost 2 billion rubles.

According to Gazprom’s report for the fourth quarter of 2013, Akimov is a member of Gazprom’s board of directors and the supervisory boards of three subsidiaries, and heads the supervisory boards of Rosneftegaz and Rosavtodor.

Bokarev is Gennady Timchenko's partner in the transport company Transoil, Bokarev owns 13%. Transoil is the main carrier of petroleum products by rail. In 2013, Forbes estimated Bokarev's fortune at $1.35 billion. Bokarev is a member of the supervisory board of the All-Russian Volleyball Federation, and the chairman of the supervisory board of this organization is Igor Sechin, the federation's website says.

BP has nominated only its president, Robert Dudley. A company representative did not say why BP nominated only one candidate, although after increasing its stake in Rosneft to 19.75% it received the right to two seats. "At the next opportunity, the company intends to propose a second candidate," he said, without specifying when this might happen. Two directors are not among the candidates for the new board: VTB Chairman of the Management Board Andrey Kostin and Rostec CEO Sergey Chemezov.

Newcomers at Rosneft

Newcomers at Rosneft