Russian State Holding Cedes Majority Share of Rosneft

Russia's state holding company Rosneftegaz is no longer the majority shareholder of national oil giant Rosneft, the latter reported in a stock filing published on May 26.

Rosneft sold its Venezuelan business in late March to an unnamed, 100% state-owned entity, in the hope that doing so would convince the US to remove sanctions it imposed earlier this year on two Rosneft subsidiaries it accused of trading Venezuelan oil, thereby propping up the Maduro regime. Washington is yet to remove the punitive measures.

As part of its withdrawal from Venezuela, Rosneft said that 9.6% of its own shares had been transferred to one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries.

Rosneftegaz's stake in Rosneft was 40.4% as of May 21, the oil company said, down from just above 50% before the Venezuelan deal. A Rosneft subsidiary called RN-NeftCapitalInvest is now the owner of 9.6% of its shares. The direct shares of BP and Qatar's QH Oil Investments are unchanged at 19.75% and 18.93% respectively.

Rosneft also reported on May 22 that its board of directors had given Igor Sechin another five-year term as the company's CEO. Sechin's reappointment comes after the company booked its first quarterly loss since 2012 in January-March, on low oil prices and ruble devaluation.