New Rosneft executive signals pivot to China
RUSSIAN energy giant Rosneft has hired a Chinese speaker as Vladimir Putin’s country attempts to deepen ties with Asia as it is shunned by Europe.
Andrey Bogatenkov, who reportedly speaks Mandarin, takes over as Rosneft’s vicepresident for commerce and logistics after his predecessor quit over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Bogatenkov headed Rosneft Singapore from 2019 before leaving in early May, Reuters reported. He is currently chief commercial officer of Nayara Energy, an Indian oil company.
Mr Bogatenkov was quoted as saying in 2020: “It’s hard to establish an efficient dialogue with [Chinese partners] without knowing Mandarin even if they have good spoken English.”
Rosneft’s need for Chinese-speaking executives is driven by western sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
The European Union plans to ban the import of some Russian oil, following a similar UK declaration in March. Mr Putin’s country currently supplies about a quarter of EU oil and 40pc of the bloc’s natural gas requirements, with sales from Russia total- ling £341bn a year.
The Opec cartel of Middle Eastern oil-exporting countries said in May that it expected Russian production to increase by about 1,000 barrels per day, noting “pri- vate sector divestments” as a result of sanctions. OPEC said that it had revised this figure downwards by 360,000 barrels per day, not- ing “very high” market uncertainty.
This predicted decline would still see Russia out- producing China by more than half, with a forecast 2022 output of 10.8m barrels per day against China’s 4.4mb/d.
Western sanctions have prompted Russia to redirect oil exports to India and China, who are reportedly enjoying steep discounts according to data seen by Reuters.
Rosneft’s tilt towards Asia comes as Chinese-owned shipping company COSCO terminates its service between Russia, Germany and the Netherlands, showing that Chinese attitudes towards the invasion of Ukraine may now be unfavourable despite initial ambiguity.