The country’s most influential energy executive, Rosneft chief Igor Sechin, is heading to the United States to speak about the future of the company, which is in the middle of taking over a huge local rival, Rosneft said Tuesday.
Sechin will attend a premier international energy conference, IHS CERAWeek in Houston, that will also draw the likes of ConocoPhillips chief Ryan Lance and BP chief Bob Dudley.
Rosneft’s top executive, during his visit Tuesday and Wednesday, will deliver a speech that will for the first time outline the strategy the company will pursue after it completes the $55 billion takeover of TNK-BP to become the world’s biggest publicly traded energy firm later this year.
There haven’t been any presentations of this sort since the announcement of the deal last year, said Vasily Tanurkov, an analyst at brokerage Veles Capital.
Rosneft appears to have chosen a U.S. venue to break the news on its development plans because it wants to play up its new global status.
“Rosneft is trying to portray itself as an international player,” Tanurkov said.
Sechin, who has traveled to the United States just once, has also scheduled meetings with the chiefs of oil companies that are Rosneft’s partners, the company said.
On his previous U.S. trip, Sechin touted the Russian oil and gas industry and its partnership with ExxonMobil.