LONDON: Glencore's chief Ivan Glasenberg and a top executive from Qatar's state wealth fund QIA will likely join the board of Rosneft this year following their purchase of a stake in the Kremlin oil major, industry sources told Reuters.
The sources said Rosneft had nominated Glasenberg alongside a QIA representative to the board, which has to be elected at the firm's annual general meeting before the end of June. The sources did not name a QIA representative.
Swiss-based Glencore and Qatar bought 19.5 percent in Rosneft in December for over 10 billion euros ($10.6 billion).
The Qatar-Glencore venture co-owns equal shares in the stake even though Glencore has said its direct exposure to Rosneft's stock was just 0.54 percent and it had contributed only 300 million euros to the deal, which was mainly funded by banks such as Italy's Intesa.
Rosneft's board is run by Chairman and Chief Executive Igor Sechin, one of President Vladimir Putin's closest allies.
Glasenberg will join the head of BP Bob Dudley who has sat on the board for a number of years since the British oil major bought a 19 percent stake in Rosneft.
Dudley remained a board member even after the United States and the European Union slapped sanctions on Rosneft and personally on Sechin for Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Other directors include former BP veteran Guillermo Quintero, former ExxonMobil chief financial officer Donald Humphreys and Matthias Warnig, a veteran Russian specialist previously with Germany's Dresdner Bank.
The Rosneft stake sale to Glencore and Qatar's QIA is one of the biggest privatisation transactions since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Glasenberg has said the partnership will allow Glencore to expand its cooperation with Rosneft by trading more Russian oil and supply refineries worldwide as the Swiss trading house is looking to boost its oil trading division.
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