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* Deputy head of oil, products trading in Moscow to run newunit
* Rosneft has long held trading ambitions
By Olga Yagova and Dmitry Zhdannikov
MOSCOW/LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) - Rosneft isopening a trading arm in Singapore as part of a pivot to Asia,the world's biggest and fastest-growing energy-consuming region,where the Russian state oil major plans to manage new projectsand boost oil sales.
Six sources familiar with Rosneft's strategy told Reutersthe arm, Rosneft Singapore, had been registered at the end of2018 and that several employees would relocate from Moscowduring the spring and summer of 2019.
The office will likely be run by Andrey Bogatenkov,currently the first deputy head of crude and product exports forRosneft in Moscow, three of the six sources said.
"The fact that Rosneft plans to appoint a key crude andproducts trader as the head of its Singapore branch means it isreally betting big on the region," a trader at a Western oilmajor working on the Russian crude oil market said.
Rosneft said it was not immediately able to comment.
Russia's coveting of the eastern oil market dates to themiddle of the last decade. Back then, Russia, the world'ssecond-largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, was shippingmost of its oil to Europe.
Rosneft and pipeline monopoly Transneft borrowed tens ofbillions of dollars from China to construct the first directpipeline to the country and later expanded it to add a majorexport terminal on the Pacific, Kozmino.
The shift towards consumers such as China and Indiaaccelerated in recent years as Asia showed steady import growthand Russia came under Western sanctions over its actions inUkraine.
The sanctions complicated Western lending to Moscow, forcingRosneft to borrow more from Asian energy consumers.
The share of Russian crude exports heading east rose to 36percent in 2018 from 31 percent in 2017, according to the OxfordInstitute of Energy Studies.
Rosneft is run by a close ally of President Vladimir Putin,Igor Sechin, who pledged in 2017 to open offices in Singaporeand has significantly boosted the company's presence in Asia.
Rosneft's crude oil exports to Asia-Pacific markets reached51 million tonnes, or 1 million barrels per day, in 2018 - abouthalf of the producer's foreign sales, the Russian EnergyMinistry says.
In 2017, Rosneft signed a long-term supply deal with China'sCEFC and increased supplies to the country under anew inter-government agreement.
TRADING AMBITIONS
Rosneft had long planned to buy a major oil trading divisionto compete with companies such as BP and Shell.
At some point it agreed to purchase the oil trading unit ofU.S. bank Morgan Stanley, but the deal was derailed bysanctions.
The company subsequently developed a Swiss trading arm,Rosneft Trading, which focuses mostly on supplying Rosneft'srefineries in Germany.
Rosneft also formed a broad alliance with Swiss commoditiesfirm Trafigura to further boost its trading activity.
The two firms co-own a refinery in India, and Trafigura hasbeen selling a significant share of Rosneft's oil on globalmarkets. The opening of the Rosneft branch in Singaporerepresents another attempt to further boost trading.
"Rosneft wants to claw back some volumes and deal directlywith many customers in Asia," a source familiar with Rosneft'sstrategy said.(Writing by Olga Yagova; Editing by Dale Hudson)
