Shareholders in Russia's biggest oil company, state-owned Rosneft, will consider a new charter extending the appointment term and authority of the company's president — a job currently held by heavyweight political insider Igor Sechin, according to documents published on Rosneft's website.
The revised charter, due to be considered at Rosneft's annual shareholders meeting on June 27, would bump up the term of office as president to five years from three and delegate expanded authority over dealmaking and project approval. Under the amended charter, the value of projects on which company's president can sign off would jump to $500 million from $50 million. The management board would have authority over agreements worth from $500 million to $1.5 billion — raising the upper limit from $500 million — and deals worth more than $1.5 billion would have to receive the blessing of the board of directors.
Rosneft's president would also be delegated authority over organizational and financial issues such as the hiring and firing of management, remuneration of board members and the distribution of profits earned by Rosneft subsidiaries.
Rosneft's main shareholder is the state, but a 19.75 percent stake is held by British oil major BP, whose chief, Robert Dudley, is a member of Rosneft's board. At a board meeting in April, Dudley said the changes to the charter were in line with the scale of the company, Vedomosti reported. Rosneft has ballooned since it was formed out of the ashes of oil company Yukos a decade ago, and its purchase of Russian-British joint venture TNK-BP last year catapulted it into the ranks of the world's biggest oil companies.
Sechin, a long-time member of Putin's inner circle and former Deputy Prime Minister overseeing the Russia's energy sector, has been President of Rosneft since leaving the government in 2012. A member of Rosneft's board of directors from 2004 to 2011, he was on hand as Rosneft snuffled up many of Yukos' prize assets in the aftermath of the Yukos' bankruptcy.
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