At the culmination of what has been an exceptional period for Rusneftegaz, we hosted a gala dinner in Moscow to celebrate the achievements of a number of our staff over the past year. Guests included members of our board of directors, in addition to our managers, senior personnel and other key stakeholders. These delegates traveled not only the length and breadth of Russia to attend, but also across the world, with a contingent arriving from our trading office in New York a few days prior. All those invited marked a significant twelve months for our company, as we continued to make rapid progress in fulfilling the plans that were delayed by the coronavirus pandemic at the beginning of the decade. Consequently, we are set to accomplish record levels of investment expenditure for 2023, with major outlays in every area of our current production program. At the event itself, our Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Aleksandr Filyurin, delivered the following remarks:
“Firstly, I would like to send my congratulations to all the gentleman who have won awards this evening. The stories we are told about them continue to astound us each year, not only for the efforts each of them has made, but also for their resilience and determination under the challenging circumstances they face. More broadly, I would also like to thank all our staff for their service this year. You have all done an exceptional job in what has been a difficult time for us. We have obviously had major setbacks over the past few years, not only with the pandemic, but also with the deterioration in the geopolitical situation last year. However, because of you, we have managed to recover, and recover quickly. We now have many reasons to be optimistic as we approach our 25th anniversary year, and I hope that each of them will be able to join us on the journey ahead.”
Ultimately, the main prizes of the night were awarded to Konstantin Mikhaylov and Artem Volkov, who were named Employee of the Year and Young Employee of the Year, respectively. The former was honored for overseeing an average increase of 27,9% in productivity at oil wells he has maintained over the past three years, whereas the latter is recognized for completing his graduate program with us despite the deaths of both his father and brother in the last twelve months. In conjunction with these awards, we also venerated a further twenty-one members of our staff with special commendations for their efforts this year, ranging from our administrative personnel to our operatives in the field. As we prepare to mark our 25th anniversary next year, we shall remain grateful to all those who have worked diligently throughout this time to enable our success, and we hope that our achievements continue for many decades to come.