Eduard Khudainatov headed the Rosneft company from 2010 to 2012. Under his leadership, a strategically important project for the supply of oil to the PRC was implemented – the development of the Vankor field. In 2013, the entrepreneur left Rosneft and founded the Independent Oil and Gas Company (NOC).
Eduard Khudainatov (date of birth: 09/11/1960) comes from a small Kazakh city of Chimkent, which today is called Shymkent. At the age of 18, after graduating from high school, the young man went to serve in the ranks of the Soviet army, in the border troops. Demobilized three years later, he moved to the north of the country, to the city of Nefteyugansk.
Business in the North
In 1981, Khudainatov got a job at the Yuganskneftegaz mining company, where he installed and dismantled drilling rigs. Then he changed several specialties, including being a loader and foreman of the Surgut department of the USSR Minneftegazstroy.
Eduard became interested in business in the late 1980s. Then he decided to open his own business and headed a small farm “Bacon”, which unfolded in Nefteyugansk, Khanty-Mansiysk region. In the 1990s, Khudainatov managed three more private enterprises: Evikhon, Evikhon-2, and Yuganskpromfinko.
From municipal service to oil production
In 1996, Eduard Khudainatov was appointed head of the administration of the Poikovsky village, then about 20 thousand people lived in it. Under him, communications were laid in Poikovsky, lawns and parks were laid out, roads were repaired, a temple was built and a children’s yacht club was created.
In the period from 2000 to 2003, Eduard held various positions in the Office of the Plenipotentiary Representative of the Head of State in the Northwestern Federal District.
After that, Khudainatov continued his career in private companies associated with oil production – he headed Severneftegazprom, a subsidiary of Gazprom. He was entrusted with the development of the Yuzhno-Russkoye field. This task became a serious test of strength for him: the development of the field was only at the preparatory stage, and Khudainatov needed to seek additional funding for the project.
At the helm of Rosneft and the creation of NOC
After the launch of the Yuzhno-Russkoye field, Eduard Khudainatov continued to develop as a manager in the oil and gas industry. The year 2008 became a landmark in his career: he was invited to Rosneft OJSC for the position of vice president. This spoke of the full trust of the company’s management and confidence in the effectiveness of its work. The news about the arrival of the Khudaynats in the structures of the state corporation spread throughout all the leading media.
From the first days of his work, he was entrusted with the most important project, which he led until the very departure from Rosneft – the Vankor field. Its development and operation were strategically important for the successful supply of black gold to China. It took Khudainatov a year to put him to work. The launch event was attended by Vladimir Putin, who was prime minister at the time. In the period from 2010 to 2012, Eduard Yuryevich served as President of Rosneft OJSC.
During his work in the state corporation, the volume of oil production increased to 110 million tons, and capitalization increased to $75 billion. In 2013, Eduard decided to leave the company and create his own project – NNK (“Independent Oil and Gas Company”).
NNK is the main brainchild of Khudainatov
The accumulated experience significantly helped Eduard Khudainatov to correctly build the strategy of his own company. In a short time, NOC increased its resource base through the acquisition of companies that own mineral reserves. For oil refining, the portfolio of assets was supplemented with shares of the Khabarovsk Oil Refinery. From that moment, the development of the subsoil of the fields owned by the company began.
Today, NOC operates primarily in the Russian market and is engaged in geological exploration, hydrocarbon processing, development of infrastructure for oil fields, and fuel sales. The company aims to develop new technologies in the field of hard-to-recover natural oil reserves.
Opinions about Eduard Khudainatov
Colleagues and everyone who has come across the work of Eduard Khudainatov note that he is a strict but fair person, ready to devote all his time to the cause.
Khudainatov is a man “who can be landed on the Moon with a shovel, come back in six months and discover a garden,” this is how his former colleague at Gazprom, Alexander Ryazanov, characterizes Eduard Yuryevich.
Local residents of the Poikovsky settlement, which Khudainatov headed in the late 90s, still warmly recall that most of the positive changes here were made possible thanks to Eduard Yuryevich. “Everything that the village is now, he did,” one of the residents of the village shares.