Employees of largest oil company Rosneft took part in the Olympic Torch Relay throughout Russia. On 8 October director of Rosneft shelf drilling department Sergey Golyshkov carried the Olympic torch through the Minskaya street in Moscow. The director was chosen to symbolize Rosneft’s work in the designing of offshore fields, strategic area of the Company, which led to unprecedented work on the Arctic shelf. Sergey Golyshkov is also an active participant and repeated finalist of Rosneft Spartakiad movement.

“It was my dream. I remember the Olympics in 1980,” Golyshkov said after passing the torch to another relay participant. “Back at that time I was already thinking how to get to the Olympic Games. And now the dream has come true. I contributed to the ‘Olympic cause.’ It’s great when an amateur athlete can take part in the relay.”

On 5 November the Olympic Torch arrived in Khanty-Mansiysk to the Priobskoye oil field, the largest field in Russia. The torch was travelling through ‘the Pearl of Western Siberia’ by full-track and wheeled snow and swamp-going vehicle. Employees of Nefteyugansk (subsidiary of Rosneft) took part in the relay.

“I have been developing this field from the very beginning since 1988, and couldn’t expect that in just 25 years I would take part in this event. I’m brimming over with joy,” a veteran of oil industry Vladimir Podgursky said after the relay.

Later in the day, the torch arrived in Nefteyugansk. Among other torchbearers there were Samotlorneftegaz employees. They are Nizhnevartovsk citizens Valery Untyukhin (oil and gas recovery specialist), Yury Abramov (director of Samotlorneftegaz department), Boris Sudyin (veteran of Samotlorneftegaz), and Valery Kuskov (shop steward). All of them are active participants of Spartakiad movement.

On 24 December the torch relay of the XXII Olympic Winter Games took place in Syzran. Maxim Aleshin and head of Syzran administration Nikolai Lyadin lit the Olympic flame cauldron in the sports and recreation center “Nadezhda”. Employees of Syzran Refinery (subsidiary of Rosneft) were actively involved in the event preparation. The sports and recreation center “Nadezhda” is owned by the refinery.