OREANDA-NEWS. Vladimir Putin met with Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin. During last night’s meeting, they discussed measures Rosneft has taken to support residents of the Far East affected by flooding.

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Mr Sechin, we talked about the situation in the Far East caused by flooding. Rosneft has a monopoly in supplying fuel to the region; this happened already during the past decade. This raises questions regarding the reliability of supplies and creating conditions so that people can revive their economy, households and business in the best possible environment. I asked you to think about how your company could contribute to this joint work.

ROSNEFT CEO IGOR SECHIN: Mr President, our work in the flooded Far Eastern regions has two main focuses. Currently, it primarily consists in protecting our employees, ensuring security and protecting infrastructure companies from flooding. Our second focus is providing a reliable, continuous supply of fuel to all consumers in the region, no matter the circumstances.

Rosneft has established a regional operational headquarters for this purpose. To protect the Komsomolsk refinery we built a dam more than 920 centimetres high. The plant is now secured against all threats. We have protected our networks and are constantly monitoring the situation. We have taken all necessary measures to ensure the safety of our employees and the company’s activities in the region.

Following your instruction (which you initially gave us and repeated now) on additional measures to support the population and consumers in affected regions (especially the Amur Region, Khabarovsk Territory and Jewish Autonomous Region), our company has analysed proposals from the regions themselves and the public. In the event that you support it, we are proposing a large-scale humanitarian action that we call Overcoming the Floods Together. For one month starting today all of Rosneft petrol stations in the above regions will give all consumers a 10% discount on any type of fuel. We’ll use the September 12 prices as a baseline.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: So there will be a 10% discount on September 12 prices.

IGOR SECHIN: Exactly.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good. When do people generally come to get petrol in any given 24-hour period?

IGOR SECHIN: You have asked a good question, Mr President. People mainly come during the day.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Look, to encourage people to help petrol stations work more efficiently, perhaps you could provide additional discounts for those who refuel at night.

IGOR SECHIN: I understand, Mr President. Then we can deal with this issue very quickly and try to immediately introduce a two-part subsidy: 10% during the day, and a subsidy of up to 15% for those who want cheaper petrol at night.