Rusneftegaz can announce that following an internal review of our internal management structure, numerous changes are set to be made in due course to the constitution of our senior personnel. Whilst the current board of directors, most of whom were appointed early last year, are generally satisfied with the work being undertaken by our staff, there is collective agreement that certain areas of our administrative departments are not operating at maximum efficiency. Therefore, it has been perceived that it is now necessary to take remedial action to prevent further long-term deterioration in our company work ethic and broader corporate standards. Thus, Rusneftegaz can disclose that the position of the Director of Personnel has been terminated with immediate effect, and will not be reappointed. Similarly, the post of Director of Accounting will be abolished upon the retirement of the current officeholder, Dmitry Golubev, at the end of 2016. In response to this disclosure, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Aleksandr Filyurin commented: 

“It is always disappointing when any member of our staff has to leave. However, in this case, it has been necessary to act in the long-term interests of Rusneftegaz. We have been working her for over one year now, and this gave adequate time to see what is working and what is not. To be direct about this, the administrative department of Rusneftegaz is “bloated”, and we found a lot of staff did not accomplish as much as they could on a day-to-day basis. It is important to point out that we do not need to make these cuts; our projections for this year and next year are already looking good. It just comes down to instigating a strong corporate culture, a strong work ethic. If we do not instill these virtues now, how long will it be until standards begin to decline? It is not a risk we wanted to take. As I said before, it is disappointing to lose any member of our team, but fundamentally we are doing what is right.” 

The developments published in this release form part of a wider plan by the board of directors to reduce the number of managers within our organization, and consolidate the existing staff hierarchy accordingly. Not only will this provide greater efficiency, accountability and transparency, but it shall also yield a major reduction in remuneration costs. Although the majority of this will derive from a fall in managerial wages and associated expenses, these savings will also be partially attributable to a nominal number of redundancies in other administrative roles. Rusneftegaz intends to consult on this in the near future at an appropriate time, and it is expected that almost all departures will be voluntary. Under the terms of the revised arrangement, all the work conducted by our accountants and internal auditors will now be supervised by our Chief Financial Officer, Mikhail Avdeyev, and is anticipated to continue as normal. Likewise, most of the functions performed by the personnel department will be transferred to the direct control of the executive office, where it shall be overseen by the Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Aleksandr Filyurin. In certain circumstances, the resolution of any serious employee issues that arise will be delegated to a third party outside the control of Rusneftegaz, primarily to guarantee that any concerns regarding conflict-of-interest are avoided and thus good corporate governance is maintained. Moreover, whilst almost all these activities will continue to be arranged in Moscow, certain functions will now be assigned to regional offices and managers, depending on their capability to manage such affairs. These particular changes ultimately form part of a key tenet in Rusneftegaz’s corporate philosophy to promote localization of business in developing regions of the Russian Federation. Further information regarding this announcement will be communicated internally to our staff, and we will not be accepting any external questions pertaining to this restructuring. We necessitate your cooperation and understanding with this important matter.

Following several reports concerning the illegal use of our brand and imagery, Rusneftegaz is urging increased vigilance against fraud schemes perpetuated in the name of our organization. Although we have undertaken appropriate measures to have this malevolent content removed, it should be considered that we do not market our products publicly under any circumstances, with the majority of our business in the petroleum industry conducted exclusively via commodities exchanges. Therefore, all interested parties should take note that we do not have any listings on any websites or social media sites, and we do not employ any individual or company to act as an intermediary on our behalf. This is principally due to the fact that it is not necessary for oil companies to pay extortionate fees for the marketing of their goods, nor should prospective buyers be willing to be charged for such services. Not only would this cause a number of conflict-of-interest issues to arise, but it would also diminish the profit margins of all legitimate participants in a transaction. As a result, we will never surrender our rights as a supplier and producer to an agent, or enter into any trilateral sales contracts accordingly. In response to this update, our Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Aleksandr Filyurin, delivered this statement in response: 

“We have recently noticed a large increase in the number of reports we have been receiving about fraud, and are naturally very concerned about this, especially considering some of them appear to use our name and logo. It is important that anyone who is serious about buying oil does plenty of research before doing anything naïve, especially considering the scammers control a lot of information about the buying process. Everyone, and I mean everyone, should be alert to the risk of fraud. For every one thousand brokers I see online, only one is legitimate. There are so many ‘joker brokers’ who either do not understand the process at all, or are just looking to make a quick dollar in a scam. I would urge anyone looking to buy oil to do so through a broker approved by one of the major commodities exchanges. It is so easy and so simple, yet so many choose to try and do it through the scammers voluntarily. I must insist that anyone reading this does their research before trying anything like this, otherwise you could lose a large amount of money.” 

Whilst we always recommend that those keen to acquire such fuels use a broker recognized and regulated by the relevant authorities, any potential customers who opt to pursue over-the-counter transactions should be aware that the risk of exposure to malicious actors increases considerably. Thus, we implicitly warn all such individuals and entities that our corporation will never communicate solely via electronic means, and that no member of our executive leadership act as a signatory to any of our corporate documentation. Consequently, we advise all of those seeking to become involved in this trade to exercise considerable due diligence before communicating with unknown counterparties, and to utilize the advice published in this bulletin for their own benefit. Due to the serious nature of these crimes, we politely request that anyone with suspicions pertaining to material found on the internet report it to us as soon as possible via the report@rusneftegaz.ru email address. Additional information relating to this subject is available for review on our website. We necessitate your cooperation and understanding regarding this important matter.