Russian energy giant Rosneft on Friday re-appointed Chief Executive Igor Sechin, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, for another five years, Financial Times reported.
Sechin, who turns 60 in September, turned the company into one of the world’s top oil players and earned the accolade of oil tsar.
He starts his new five-year term at a critical time as the coronavirus impact has hammered oil prices and a supply output pact is limiting Russia’s ability to produce the fuel that is central to its economy.
Sechin rose from being Putin’s aide in 1990s to becoming one of Russia’s most influential players after he started overseeing Rosneft in 2000s.
After becoming Rosneft CEO in 2012, he began a buying spree, often criticized, but which made Rosneft the world’s biggest oil producer among publicly-traded companies – until late last year when Saudi Aramco’s public share offering handed it the top spot.
Saudi Arabia’s and Russia’s rivalry led to a battle for market share in March that flooded a market already oversupplied with oil because of the drop in demand related to lockdown travel restrictions as countries tried to contain the novel coronavirus.
