On Friday, Rosneft said it will no longer make any plans for strategic acquisitions as it is intent to complete the consolidation of oil trading unit it agreed to buy from Morgan Stanley last week. Reuters said in its report that the move was a clear indication that the oil firm wanted to earn profit from its own trading after providing oil for years via BP and other international energy companies, or Vitol and Gunvor and other trading houses.
Rosneft is being run by a known ally of President Vladimir Putin, Igor Sechin. The top listed oil producer in the world in terms of output had taken over TNK-BP just this year in a $55 billion deal, and had been continuing its strategy to acquire foreign and domestic assets in order to become a global energy major player.
Last week, Morgan Stanley entered into a definitive agreement to divest the majority of its global physical oil trading operations to the state-controlled company, thus, marking another Wall Street firm that divested majority of its commodity unit. Two weeks ago, Deutsche Bank said it will be exiting from its commodities trading, while JPMorgan is reportedly auctioning its physical trading operations.
In an emailed reply to Reuters, Rosneft said regarding its response about its trading acquisition strategy in the future, "At the moment, we are focused on this deal completion and the asset's maximum possible integration into the Rosneft structure."
Rosneft also stated that around 100 traders and 180 back-office personnel that will be joining under its deal with Morgan Stanley will remain at their current locations, which are in the cities of London, New York and Singapore.. However, Reuters said that despite the merger, the Russian oil company's trading desks is no match to the trading operations of BP, which employs a staff of over 3,000 people. On the other hand, the report said it was not clear whether any core staff of Rosneft will be joining the new hires offshore later.
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