Rosneft to Create Universal Bank

The group is composed of Rair Simonyan, Elena Titova and Walid Chammah who will directly advise Rosneft President Igor Sechin, the company said.

"The Advisory Group was requested to establish a full-service financial institution - Rosneft Bank - on the basis of Rosneft-owned financial assets, including the Russian Regional Development Bank. The new bank will be designed to secure the effectiveness...control and complete transparency of the financial provision of Rosneft’s strategic areas of growth,” Rosneft said.

Rosneft Bank will assist in implementing the company’s large-scale international projects, streamline Rosneft’s system of crude oil and petroleum products trading and provide a full range of high-quality financial services to individual and corporate clients in the oil, gas and energy sectors.

Sechin, a long-time ally of President Vladimir Putin, has launched ambitious plans to turn the company into a major player on international oil markets.

Rosneft announced in October it had reached a landmark agreement with British oil major BP to acquire its 50 percent interest in Russia’s third largest oil producer TNK-BP in a $28 billion cash and shares deal.

It also said it had agreed to repurchase the remaining 50 percent stake in BP’s Russian joint venture from the AAR consortium of Russian billionaire shareholders.

Rosneft’s deal for the all-out purchase of TNK-BP would make it the world’s largest publicly-traded oil company, with higher crude production than global energy titans Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell.