Pipeliners

MOSCOW, October 15 (RIA Novosti) - Nikolai Tokarev, formerly head of a state-owned oil company, has been elected president of Transneft [RTS: TRNF], the state-controlled pipeline monopoly said on Monday. Tokarev, 56, has been the head of Zarubezhneft since 2000, when he quit as Transneft's vice president. Before receiving approval by the shareholders, his candidacy should have been endorsed by the government, which holds a 75% stake in the transport monopoly. Former Transneft CEO Semyon Vainshtok will head the state-run corporation overseeing the construction of venues and infrastructure for the Winter Olympics, which Russia's Black Sea resort city of Sochi will host in 2014. Experts have described Tokarev, who has a background in security services, as a diligent figure to oversee ambitious company projects, in particular a multi-billion-dollar pipeline to carry oil and gas from vast East Siberian fields to Pacific Rim countries. Vainshtok left Transneft on September 11, a day before President Vladimir Putin dismissed the prime minister and the Cabinet, an event that overshadowed reshuffles in the pipeline monopoly.