For the first time in our history, Rusneftegaz held our annual awards ceremony remotely as a result of the coronavirus pandemic inhibiting our plans to host it at a venue in Moscow. In spite of this, we managed to mark the accomplishments of our staff throughout the last twelve months in a befitting manner, with all prizes being distributed by the immediate colleagues of the winners instead of the company executives who usually perform this role. Such changes enabled us to fully conform with current distancing requirements, while also ensuring the safety of all involved. All those selected to receive rewards were nominated by their managers for their achievements over the past year, be this their outstanding contribution to our ongoing success or diligent work ethic. At the conclusion of the virtual event, our Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Aleksandr Filyurin, gave these remarks:
“The board and I would like to express our gratitude to all our employees for their work in what has been an unexpectedly challenging year. We have been amazed by the efforts that all our staff have made to continue working despite the changes in circumstances. This includes all our staff who have been working from their own homes, to everyone out on site who has had to work under the new restrictions. At the same time, we would also like to congratulate all the prizewinners for the jobs each of them has done this year; some of the stories we have heard have been remarkable considering everything that has happened. It has obviously been an unprecedented year for not only Rusneftegaz as a company, but for the entire world. That said, we are not epidemiologists and do not know when this will end, but since it started, we have shown our resilience and have still been able to prosper. The pandemic has obviously had an impact on our plans and aspirations, but I am confident that soon we will be able to continue as we did before.”
During the evening, the major prizes of the night were awarded to Georgi Alekseev and Martin Kozlov, who were named as employee and young employee of the year respectively. The former was acclaimed for his excellent performance in the field despite his cancer diagnosis two years ago, whereas the latter graduated first in his technical class, outscoring his peers by a considerable margin. Ultimately, in what has been a period disrupted by closures and shutdowns, our leadership also elected to present an additional seventeen members of our personnel with special commendations for their exceptional work to keep our organization functioning over the past twelve months. Each of these individuals put themselves and their families at risk to enable us to continue our operations on a day-to-day basis at some of the most tumultuous times in recent history, which we are immensely grateful for. We shall do our utmost to acknowledge the efforts of our workers, and we are indebted to all of them for their work in what has been a turbulent year. Although we do not know when this will conclude, we know that we can rely on each of them until such a time.
