Pipeliners

04 September 2007 - Upstream OnLine - Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft denied today that chief executive Semyon Vainshtok had tendered his resignation amid market rumours the long-serving Russian oil export tsar would retire in October. "I can firmly deny he has offered to resign. Those rumours have persisted throughout his eight years as Transneft's president," Transneft Vice-President Sergei Grigoriyev told Reuters. Vainshtok turns 60, the normal retirement age for state officials in Russia, on 5 October. Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters today that Vainshtok had held a farewell party and told employees of Transneft, the world's largest pipeline firm, he expected to step down soon. "The feeling is very strong that it is definitive now, but with Vainshtok you never know as people have buried him so many times in the past years," one source said. Grigoriyev denied Vainshtok had such a party. He also said Vainshtok's current contract would expire on 13 September. "We will see what happens on 13 September," he said. Vainshtok is seen as one of the most professional Russian state managers because he doubled the country's oil export pipeline capacity in eight years, firmly establishing Russia as the world's second largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia. But oil traders have questioned Transneft's export allocation policies under Vainshtok’s leadership. Transneft trans-ships all of Russian crude production of 9.9 million barrels per day via trunk pipelines and exports around 5 million bpd to world markets. It is also building a 1.6 million-bpd pipeline to China and the Pacific coast which will allow it to diversify away from European markets. "Business goes as usual, we are pumping oil and building new pipelines," said Grigoriyev.