New Delhi, July 25 -- Russian oil giant Rosneft-backed Indian refiner, Nayara Energy, which has recently been hit by EU sanctions, has appointed a new chief executive officer after its previous CEO resigned, sources aware of the matter said on Friday.

Alessandro Des Dorides resigned as CEO of Nayara Energy last week and has been replaced by Sergey Denisov, they said.

The resignation came just as the European Union imposed sanctions on Nayara as part of a new raft of measures against Russia over its war with Ukraine.

Rosneft owns 49.13 per cent stake in Nayara Energy Ltd, formerly Essar Oil Ltd. Nayara owns and operates a 20 million tonne a year oil refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat, as well as over 6,750 petrol pumps.

Des Dorides had joined Nayara Energy in April 2024. He was previously the head of oil trading at Eni where he was sacked for withholding information on illegal Iran oil trade.

In 2019, Italian oil company Eni SpA bought a shipment of oil that was purported to have come from Iraq but actually came from Iran. The act potentially breached the US sanctions and led to Des Dorides, who oversaw the deal for the cargo, being fired.

Denisov, who has been with Nayara since 2017, previously was its chief development officer.

Nayara had earlier this week denounced the latest EU sanctions against it as unjust and harmful to India's interests, and said it was studying legal options.

Rosneft too had condemned sanctions on Nayara Energy as unjustified, illegal, and described them as a direct threat to India's energy security.

The European Union's 18th package of sanctions against Russia over its war with Ukraine was approved last week with a view to weakening its revenue sources. Nayara Energy was one of the companies that was sanctioned.

Besides Rosneft, an investment consortium SPV, Kesani Enterprises Company, holds another 49.13 per cent stake in Nayara. Kesani is owned by Russia's United Capital Partners (UCP) and Hara Capital Sarl, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mareterra Group Holding (formerly Genera Group Holding S.p.A.).

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.