Rosneft opens trading arm in Singapore

It plans to manage new projects and boost oil sales in Asia.

Reuters reports that Russian integrated energy company Rosneft will open a trading arm in Singapore as part of its pivot to Asia where it plans to manage new projects and boost oil sales.

Six sources familiar with Rosneft’s strategy told Reuters the arm, Rosneft Singapore, had been registered at the end of 2018 and that several employees would relocate from Moscow during the spring and summer of 2019.

The office will likely be run by Andrey Bogatenkov, currently the first deputy head of crude and product exports for Rosneft in Moscow, three of the six sources said.

“The fact that Rosneft plans to appoint a key crude and products trader as the head of its Singapore branch means it is really betting big on the region,” a trader at a Western oil major working on the Russian crude oil market said.

Rosneft said it was not immediately able to comment.

Read the full report here.