NEW YORK, Aug 2 (Reuters) -

Gunvor's head of U.S. gasoline trading and executive

committee member Dmitri Sinenko is leaving the Swiss trader to

join Russia-backed rival Litasco, two sources familiar with the

move said on Friday.

Sinenko's decision to depart was communicated to Gunvor

employees over recent days, one of the sources said.

Gunvor did not immediately respond to a request for comment

and Sinenko could not be contacted on his LinkedIn profile.

Sinenko's role at Litasco could not be learnt

immediately. Calls to Litasco's U.S. arm Lukoil Pan Americas did

not connect.

Sinenko, widely considered one of the top gasoline

traders of the past decade, joined Gunvor from Noble Group at

the end of 2017 as the Asian trading group restructured after

suffering heavy losses and high debt. He had spent a decade at

Noble trading gasoline and distillate fuels.

He joined Gunvor at a time that the energy trader was

just setting up its U.S. arm, taking charge of building and

expanding the prized gasoline trading book in the country.

U.S. gasoline consumption makes up about 10% of

worldwide oil consumption, making the business crucial to energy

traders' profits.

Litasco, also based in Switzerland, is the trading arm

of Russian energy giant Lukoil. It moved some

operations

to Dubai

and

scaled back

some other functions in 2022 after Western sanctions on

Russia's energy industry for the

war in Ukraine.