Rosneft Not to Sell Oil to Timchenko

Trading house Gunvor - dubbed by dealers the king of Kremlin oil - has been left with no Russian crude to sell. That was the surprise outcome of the latest big Russian crude oil sales tender, long routinely won by Gunvor. The result has sparked an intense debate in the industry about whether Gunvor's co-owner Gennady Timchenko is out of favour with the Kremlin or whether the firm is merely fine-tuning its strategy before embarking on yet another phase of spectacular growth. Geneva-based Gunvor, which at one point handled as much as 40 percent of Russia's seaborne exports and was a regular in term deals with companies such as Rosneft, Surgut and TNK-BP, insists the latest development is consistent with its long-term strategy. There has been media speculation in Russia that Timchenko has fallen out with Putin's main energy aide Igor Sechin, deputy prime minister until May and currently chief executive at Rosneft. According to the sources of leading Russian business daily Vedomosti, Sechin have showed irritation about Timchenko's being a "lawful billionaire" while Sechin himself have to "work like a beaver day and night."  Timchenko has denied any conflicts with Rosneft, though.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/14/gunvor-idUSL5E8KC9OS20120914
http://www.vedomosti.ru/companies/news/3990001/gunvor_v_otstavke
http://lenta.ru/news/2012/09/17/gunvor/