Putin Orders Rosneftegaz Assets Sale in 2013-2015
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered the government to approve a plan to sell state assets in 2013-2015 in the holding Rosneftegaz, which manages stakes in Gazprom and Rosneft, the Interfax news agency said.
Putin's order potentially opens the way for privatizating a stake in Rosneft, notwithstanding a Presidential decree on Tuesday that places the oil giant on a list of strategic companies, which had fueled concerns that Putin intended to exclude the energy sector from privatisation.
Rosneftegaz controls 75.16% in Rosneft, 10.74% in Gazprom and 7% in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium. While Gazprom's privatization has not been discussed, a further state stake sale in Rosneft had been included in previous government plans.
Russia had planned to sell 15% in Rosneft in 2012 as part of a wider ambitious privatization program, but the plan was later scrapped with government official saying the share price was too low to sell.
Igor Sechin, the energy 'tsar' in Putin's former government, who this week was appointed as Rosneft's CEO, has long opposed the sale of the stake in Russia's top crude producer whose London IPO in 2006 was one of the biggest of all time, raising $10 billion.
Rosneft, which accounts for over a quarter of Russia's total crude oil production, earlier this year struck landmark agreements with ExxonMobil, Eni and Statoil to tap huge hydrocarbon reserves in the Russian Arctic and other regions.
