Table of names

Sergei Bogdanchikov

Rosneft's president, is one of the few people with direct access to Putin, and is also one of the only major players surrounding Putin to have no obvious background in either St. Petersburg or the security services. He rose from the position of engineer through the administrative ranks of state-run oil-drilling concerns on Sakhalin. In 1993, he was appointed general director of Sakhalinmorneftegaz. In 1997, he was named vice president of Rosneft, where he began coordinating the Company’s projects on the Sakhalin shelf as well as other projects in the Far East. When Bogdanchikov became the CEO at Rosneft in 1998, the company, which the state had hoped in the 1990s would become the leader of Russia's oil industry, was faced with falling production and had lost out on some properties to aggressive moves by oligarch-controlled interests – including Sibneft and Abromovich. Bogdanchikov quickly moved to consolidate the company's control over its holdings and has since made a number of moves, including the Yuganskeneftegaz purchase, to strengthen the company's position. Most experts believe that much of this success is due to Bogdanchikov's ties to the siloviki and, in particular, Sechin.

Sergey Bogdanchikov currently serves as Rosneft’s president, a position which he has held since his appointment by the Russian government on October 14, 1998.

Mr. Bogdanchikov began his career in the oil and gas industry on Sakhalin Island in 1981.  In 1993, he was appointed general director of Sakhalinmorneftegaz.  In 1997, he was named vice president of Rosneft, where he began coordinating the Company’s projects on the Sakhalin shelf as well as other projects in the Far East.

Born in 1957, Sergey Bogdanchikov received a first class honors degree from the Ufa Petroleum Institute in 1981 where he studied methods and integrated mechanization of developing oil and gas fields.  He holds a Doctorate of Science in Engineering and is the author of several academic works.

 51 , self made

Gained control of Surgutneftegaz, Russia's fourth-largest oil company, during the privatization auctions of 1994 and 1995. Is known in Russia as a competent and honest industrial tycoon; many regard Surgutneftegaz to be the best-managed oil company in Russia, though outside investors have been grumbling at the company's paltry dividends, primitive accounting and underutilized cash horde. Exceptionally private: dubbed the "Hermit of Siberia", Bogdanov rarely leaves his remote oil town, never grants interviews and shuns the trappings of wealth; often walks to work and does his own grocery shopping.

Bogdanov, the President of Surgutneftegaz, Russia's second largest oil company, was born in Suyerka in 1951, a small village in the Tiumen region of west Siberia. This also was the prime location of most of Russia's oil fields. He attended the Tiumen Industrial Institute and specialized in oil and well drilling.

After graduating in 1973 he went to work as a technician in the nearby oil fields of Nizhnevartovsk, Nefteyugansk and Surgut. He eventually became deputy general director of drilling in Surgutneftgaz and then general director. He remained as general director when the oil company was privatized in 1993. Unlike Lukoil, Surgutneftegaz consisted primarily of producing fields and only in 1994 did it branch out to encompass oil refineries and gasoline service stations.