The Trading Tycoon Steering Russia’s Global Oil Business - Bloomberg
Igor Sechin, the boss of Russia’s state oil company and longtime associate of Vladimir Putin, celebrated New Year’s Eve on a yacht anchored off Palm Jumeirah, the man-made Dubai island dotted with oligarch-friendly beachfront villas.
Sechin spent most of 2022 grappling with the impact of the invasion of Ukraine on Russia’s oil exports and finding new customers in the wake of sanctions. His most important guest that night was one of the men who helped him do it: oil trader Murtaza Lakhani, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter.
A veteran of crude oil deals from Baghdad to Caracas, the Karachi native made a name for himself navigating some of the most challenging jurisdictions. Now, in alliance with Sechin, he’d helped set up a web of oil traders and shipping firms to steer Russian barrels around the globe amid a nuanced response from the West — sanctions and a price cap intended to restrict revenues alongside prodding from Washington to keep the flow going.
This story is based on interviews with several dozen people familiar with Lakhani’s business empire and the Russian oil trade, including people who’ve recently worked for his companies. They didn’t want to be identified discussing confidential business dealings.
Most of Lakhani’s Russia-related operations take place in countries not implementing the G-7’s price cap on exports, designed to block oil sold above $60 from critical Western-provided services such as shipping insurance. Having worked with Rosneft PJSC for nearly a decade before the invasion, he was also in a good position to help the state oil giant navigate an increasingly complex sanctions regime.
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