BP top manager may join Russia's oil giant Rosneft

Larry Bates, a former BP top manager, who supervised the failed tie-up deal in January between the British oil giant and Russia's largest state-run oil company Rosneft, may join the local firm as vice president, Kommersant business daily said on Wednesday quoting a Rosneft official. Bates may be officially appointed by the end of the year, the paper added. A Rosneft representative said the company was considering Bates' candidacy , but declined to name the exact position, while a source in Rosneft said Bates might be appointed as advisor to Rosneft President Eduard Khudainatov. In January, BP and Rosneft struck a $16-billion agreement to develop the Arctic shelf with BP getting new reserves and Rosneft gaining shelf technologies it lacked. But the deal collapsed after BP's partners in its local project said the Rosneft deal violated a shareholder agreement between them and the British major. Bates worked at UzPec, a company owned by former Fuel and Energy Minister Yury Shafranik which developed profit sharing projects in Uzbekistan between 1999 and 2005. In 2005, he joined BP as a project manager. Bates has been working at BP's Russian office since 2007, but his contract ended in early September, according to one of Bates’ colleagues. He said that Bates never mentioned joining Rosneft but seemed to have job offers from the Middle East. Another source said Rosneft is now forming a new management structure and may take on up to 20 new vice presidents. "The company is searching for highly qualified shelf projects specialists as well as specialists necessary for international development," a Rosneft representative told the paper. A source close to Rosneft said the fact that the deal between BP and Rosneft collapsed was not taken into account when hiring people.