The chief oil trader at TNK-BP said he would leave the Anglo-Russian oil venture, which faces an uncertain future as its owners seek to dissolve their fraught but highly lucrative partnership.
Jonathan Kollek, who is widely credited with building the most sophisticated in-house oil trading setup in Russia during his decade at TNK-BP, said on Thursday he would be taking a career break.
He denied a newspaper report that he would join state oil major Rosneft, which has entered talks to buy international energy company BP Plc's one-half stake in Russia's No. 3 oil company and has hired a number of executives from both TNK-BP and BP recently.
"I am leaving TNK-BP after 10 years for completely personal reasons," Kollek, vice president for sales, trading and logistics, told Reuters.
Israeli-born Kollek, nephew of the late mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek, introduced long-term tenders to sell crude oil and refined products while at TNK-BP, boosting its export operations.
(Reuters)
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