Sechin, who on Tuesday was officially appointed new CEO of the state-owned oil giant, stresses that big projects like the one in the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea will be given special attention under his leadership, a transcript from his meeting with Dmitry Medvedev reads.
The man who by many analysts have been called the “grey cardinal” in the former government of Vladimir Putin, takes over a company, which over the last few years has grown to become Russia’s by far biggest oil producer. With the position, Sechin formalizes his leadership in the company. From before, he has for several years served as company board leader, and has by many been seen as the actual head of company affairs.
In Putin’s government, Sechin served as deputy premier with special responsibility for the energy sector. It has been widely known that Sechin played a key role in the formation of several of the recent offshore partnership deals. Statoil CEO Helge Lund himself confirmed in his meeting with Vlaidmir Putin on May 5 that there had been extensive contact with Sechin ahead of the signing of the Barent Sea deal.
It remains unclear what will happen with current Rosneft leader Eduard Khudainatov, but newspaper Vedomosti indicates that he might become new company vice-president.
In his meeting with PM Dmitry Medvedev yesterday, Sechin maintained that the implementation of grand offshore projects like the ones in the Barents Sea, the Kara Sea an the Black Sea, will be a top priority along with the supply of oil products with stable prices to the Russian domestic market and the modernization of oil processing facilities.
Medvedev supported Sechin’s choice of priorities and underlined that a number of groundbreaking projects with foreign partners have successfully unfolded over the last years. He also confirmed that he in last weekend’s G8 meeting discussed the role of Rosneft’s giant offshore projects with world leaders.
