Matthias Warnig, Chief Executive of the Nord Stream AG
pipeline consortium has been appointed to the board of Russian pipeline
operator OAO Transneft, replacing energy minister Sergei Shmatko, the company
said Monday.
The appointment comes after state oil producer OAO Rosneft earlier this month
said Warnig is the only candidate to replace Yuri Petrov on its board at an
extraordinary general meeting in September.
Warnig is head of the Nord Stream gas pipeline consortium, a project controlled
by Russian gas giant OAO Gazprom with Wintershall AG, E.ON Ruhrgas AG,
Nederlandse Gasunie NV and GDF Suez SA as minority shareholders. The pipeline
will carry 55 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas to Germany a year.
The changes follow Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's decision to oust senior
officials from boards at state companies. Powerful Deputy Prime Minister Igor
Sechin was forced to withdraw as Rosneft chairman earlier this year.
Warnig is an acquaintance of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who he met in the
early 1990s when his former employer Dresnder Bank attempted to get a banking
operating license in St. Petersburg where Putin was a senior figure in the
local administration.
Warnig also served in East Germany's secret police, the Stasi, roughly at the same
time as Putin was working in East Germany for the KGB.