Putin Praises Rosneft Privatization as Biggest Deal on Energy Market in 2016

Russian President Vladimir Putin described on Wednesday the sale of a 19.5-percent government stake in Russia's Rosneft oil company as the biggest deal on the energy market this year.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin informed Putin earlier on Wednesday that the government stake in the company had been sold to a consortium of mining group Glencore and Qatar's sovereign wealth fund for 10.5 billion euros (some $11.3 billion).

"The deal has been finalized along with the growing oil prices trend, which has been reflected by the increased value of the company. So we can say it happened at an opportune time," Putin said.

The president stressed that the Russian government will retain the controlling stake in the company.