Page 16 - FSUOGM Week 21 2022

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM

Sibur CFO O’Brien quits as sanctions

decimate Russia’s foreign executive ranks

PETER O’Brien, the chief financial officer of motherland and cut your ties overseas or take
Russia’s largest petrochemical company Sibur off forever.”
and a member of its management board, has Reuters reported on May 19 that five foreign
left the company as sanctions decimate the vice-presidents at Rosneft have resigned because
ranks of Russia’s foreign executives, NewsBase of European Union sanctions forbidding Euro-
has learned from its partner news service bne/ pean citizens or Russians living in the EU to
IntelliNews. work at the Kremlin oil major.
O’Brien, an American who also holds an They said the five – Didier Casimiro, Eric
Irish passport, is an experienced Russia opera- Liron, Zeljko Runje, Avril Conroy and Otabek
tor, having previously worked in senior roles for Karimov – left Rosneft days ahead of fresh EU
state-controlled oil producer Rosneft and the sanctions over the Russian assault on Ukraine
Moscow office of US bulge bracket bank Morgan that came into effect on May 15. Belgian-born
Stanley. Given his experience in launching Ros- Casimiro and Irishwoman Conroy are now
neft’s listing, it is widely accepted that O’Brien believed to have left the country.
was hired to help expedite Sibur’s long-mooted Casimiro, a key figure for Russian oil and
initial public offering (IPO). products trading and supply, joined Rosneft
Neither O’Brien nor Sibur spokesperson after the company bought BP’s joint venture in
responded to requests for comment. Russia, TNK-BP. French-born Liron and Con-
O’Brien is just the latest in a slew of foreign roy also joined Rosneft from TNK-BP in 2013
executives to leave their roles at Russian state- and were responsible for in-house services and
owned companies and blue-chips with close retail business development respectively. ™
connections to the Kremlin. Cole Akeson,
senior equity strategist at Sberbank CIB and an
employee at the Kremlin bank for a decade has
also recently left, bne IntelliNews can reveal.
“I chose to leave my position as senior strat-
egist at Sber last month for obvious, tragic
reasons,” Akeson posted on LinkedIn after relo-
cating from Moscow to New York. “I’m now
looking for a new role and would appreciate any
leads on opportunities, new connections, advice
– or a chance to catch up in person or Zoom.
Any geography (except Moscow) is welcome.”
A senior headhunter who recently left Rus-
sia, estimated there is only “a tiny handful” of
Westerners still employed in Russian state-
owned entities such as VTB, Gazprombank and
the large blue-chips such as Lukoil and Novatek.
“There has been a complete clear-out at
companies like Yandex, but they had a terri-
ble choice,” said the headhunter. “These guys
were all going to be sanctioned by the West,
so they were told either embrace your adopted Sibur CFO Peter O’Brien (File Image)

NEWS IN BRIEF

Ferghana oil refinery Assets Management Agency (SAMA) has said. company.
SAMA noted that the facility has enjoyed nei-
As part of the transaction, the buyer is com-
fetches $100mn at auction ther modernisation nor reconstruction over the mitted to investing $380mn in the moderni-
sation of the plant, the production of gasoline,
past 20 years. The biggest obstacle to the effec-
Uzbekistan’s Ferghana oil refinery was sold for tive functioning of the refinery is the shortage of diesel fuel and natural gas, the modernisation of
$100mn, with Uzbek company Sanoat Energe- raw materials, it added. The pandemic also had a oil units and ensuring an increase in production
tika Guruhi becoming the new owner, the State negative impact on the financial activities of the capacity to at least 2mn tonnes/year.

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 21 25•May•2022