Nine months after surprising the world with an $11bn venture to buy a stake in Russia’s state oil company, Glencore is selling most of it and emerging from the deal with a valuable crude supply contract and political ties in Moscow burnished. The companies announced on Friday that the Glencore-Qatar consortium would sell the bulk of its stake in Rosneft to CEFC China Energy, a little-known but rapidly expanding Chinese conglomerate. CEFC would become the third-largest shareholder in Russia’s state oil champion after the Russian state and BP, while the Qatar Investment Authority would retain a 4.7% stake. Glencore would be left with a stake of just 0.5%, but will retain a prized side deal to trade 220,000 barrels a day of oil from Rosneft. "By means of essentially a political favour to Moscow, they’re able to secure for themselves a significant quantity of material to feed into their trading business at a time when other traders are currently finding this an extremely difficult marke...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.