WoE: Plastics in the snow: Sibur takes the lead in Russia's burgeoning petrochemical sector with CEO Dmitry Konov

bne IntelliNews

Russia has been called a petroecongomy and over reliant on the simple business of pulling oil and gas out of the ground and sending it down a pipeline to the international markets. Sibur is Russia’s biggest petrochemical company and is going up the value chain. The company’s $9bn ZapSib plant based in the former Siberian capital of Tobolsk will go online in April and will treble the company’s production as well as doubling its revenues. The company is a leading example of Russia’s on going development as it plays to its strengths and the leading businessmen are starting to invest for the long term and make more of what it has. The ZapSib plant is the last big investment project for the meantime as the company reaches maturity. It has also been dogged by a focus on its sanctioned oligarch shareholder Gennady Timchenko and board member Kirill Shamalov, who was reportedly married to Russian president Vladimir Putin’s daughter. bne IntelliNews editor-in-chief Ben Aris talks to Sobur CEO Dmitry Konov about all these topics as well asthe possibility of an IPO for the companyin 2019. Ben Aris, editor-in-chiefbne IntelliNews Dmitry Konov, CEO Sibur