Two senior Moscow managers at Glencore have left the commodity trader for their own start-up that will trade energy resources and supply equipment in Russia, sources in the industry told Reuters today.
The two managers, Vladimir Scherbak and Svetlana Astakhova, have worked for many years at Glencore's energy desk in Moscow, and according to Reuters' sources, they have quit Glencore 'by mutual consent.'
The departure of the two veteran executives, who quit with a dozen other Glencore employees, is not expected to impact the oil trading business of the Switzerland-based commodity giant in Russia, according to a source at a Russian oil firm who spoke to Reuters.
The Russian oil company typically communicates and works with Glencore's desk in London, which manages all the business with the oil trading firm, the source told Reuters.
Glencore trades oil and oil products produced by the Russian oil companies, including the biggest producer, Rosneft. The oil trading firm is also a partner of RussNeft, another Russian oil producer.
Scherbak, who left Glencore for his joint start-up with Astakhova, is a member of the board of directors of RussNeft. Scherbak has been employed in various roles at the representation of Glencore (Switzerland) in Moscow since 1998, according to RussNeft's website.
Scherbak and Astakhova are owners of the newly set up company Alliance Industry Group, according to the company database SPARK Interfax cited by Reuters. The company has three units, one of which-Severoproekt-Service-has a website which explains that it is "an integrated engineering company that operates and provides maintenance for power plants based on GE Jenbacher gas engines and Cummins diesel generators."
The start-up Alliance Industry Group was founded in November last year, according to the company database quoted by Reuters. The new company has the same company address as the Moscow office of Glencore, according to the SPARK Interfax database.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More