MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's largest private oil company, Lukoil, has replaced its vice president of oil supply and sales amid complications in its relationship with state-owned Rosneft, three people familiar with the situation told Reuters.
Lukoil logo at a gas station in Moscow. Russia's largest private oil company, Lukoil, has replaced its vice president for oil supplies and sales amid complications in its relationship with state-owned Rosneft, three people familiar with the situation told Reuters. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
According to them, Valery Subbotin, the owner of a 0.0152% stake in Lukoil, who has worked in the company for 18 years, including the last nine as vice president, is moving to leadership position to Lukoil's trading company, Litasco, and his place has already been taken by Vadim Vorobyov, who was previously Lukoil's vice president for oil refining, petrochemistry and gas processing.
Lukoil's press service declined to comment on personnel changes in the company. Reuters tried to contact Subbotin by phone and sent a request for comment to e-mail however he did not answer.
Lukoil is the largest private oil company in the Russian Federation and the second largest oil company in the country after Rosneft. Both are the main and active players in the Russian oil market, whose interests have clashed more than once in different segments, whether it is the struggle for deposits, assets or buyers of oil and oil products.
Over the past two months, Rosneft, led by Igor Sechin, a longtime associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has carried out a number of major transactions, including the acquisition of Lukoil partner Bashneft, buying a stake in the largest Indian refinery Essar and organizing the sale of shares of Rosneft itself.
Sechin was able to short term ensure the sale of 19.5 percent of Rosneft to Qatar sovereign wealth fund and trader Glencore, bailing out badly needed Russian budget 10.5 billion euros. While observers questioned the effectiveness of the deal, Putin praised the efforts of the head of Rosneft, who responded by saying that the deal was only possible because of Putin's personal contribution.
Earlier, in the process of joining Bashneft, Sechin managed to overcome resistance to the deal in the highest echelons of power.
Yes, former minister economic development Russia's Alexei Ulyukaev, who was arrested November 15 on corruption charges, called Rosneft an "improper buyer" for Bashneft in July, Russian state agencies reported.
One of Reuters' sources linked Subbotin's departure to the consequences of Lukoil losing the fight against Rosneft for a controlling stake in Bashneft.
“Lukoil worked closely with Bashneft, really wanted to buy it, but Rosneft, it turns out, got in the way, and after the deal, it immediately began to reshape the scheme for selling oil, naturally, not in favor of Lukoil. good relations it can't be here,” said one trader on the Russian oil market.
Subbotin was responsible in Lukoil for building the company's trade policy in the domestic market and in the supply of oil for export.
On October 12, 2016, Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontiev said on the air of the Dozhd TV channel that Rosneft had a lot of questions for Bashneft and its operating activities, including issues related to the sale of oil between Lukoil and Bashneft
Rosneft, in response to a Reuters request, said that “the logistics of Bashneft's assets will be carried out primarily on the basis of economic feasibility. The company currently has a valid contract. It is possible to change its parameters - based on the requirements of its business plan, Rosneft will determine the optimal routes for the supply of manufactured products.”
NO CONSENT
During the privatization of Bashneft, Lukoil ceded the asset to Rosneft and practically left the race by the time the decision to sell the stake was made. After gaining control over Bashneft, Rosneft approached with particular care the termination of all contracts between the Bashkir company and Lukoil.
Thus, since November, Rosneft stopped buying oil from Lukoil for Bashneft's Bashkir refineries, although Lukoil was the largest supplier, shipping about 500,000 tons of oil per month.
At the same time, Rosneft did not cancel the contract for the supply of oil for the Bashkir refineries with Gazprom Neft, although the volume of purchases under this agreement was significantly lower - less than 50,000 tons per month.
An unresolved issue after the accession of Bashneft to Rosneft remains the scheme for marketing oil from the fields named after. Trebs and them. Titov, operated by Bashneft-Polyus, in which Bashneft owns 74.9 percent and Lukoil 25.1 percent, traders say.
Oil from the fields enters the Kharyaga-Varandey pipeline to the Varandey terminal, the entire infrastructure belongs to Lukoil, and is shipped as part of the Varandey Blend. Litasco has been engaged in marketing of raw materials since the beginning of deliveries.
The contract for supplies to Litasco is valid only until the end of 2016, but alternative routes for oil supplies from Trebs and Titov to this moment no, industry sources say.
“Rosneft doesn’t have many options: either peacefully continue to cooperate with Litasco and use Lukoil’s infrastructure, or try to buy out all the infrastructure in Varandey, although Lukoil is unlikely to want to sell it,” says an industry source.
According to him, in the last month, it is the export of oil from Trebs and Titov that has been the most acute issue in relations between Rosneft and Lukoil.
“Everything seems to be complicated with Trebs: the deadlines are running out, Sechin does not want to supply oil through Lukoil at all, and there are no alternatives, just as there is no money. The field is in the active phase of development, if production is stopped due to disagreements, it is a failure,” said one industry source familiar with the negotiations.
Market participants also fear that the change of the top manager responsible for oil supplies may cause a reduction in the supply of raw materials to the domestic market of the Russian Federation.
“Lukoil sent a lot of oil to the domestic market, and now it is not clear whether these supplies will be reduced or not. Now, in any case, those companies that worked with Lukoil under substitution schemes received nothing for January,” one of the traders said.
On October 12, PJSC Rosneft acquired a 50.08% stake in Bashneft, which was in state ownership. As a result, the budget will receive 329.69 billion rubles, and the company itself will receive a new investment program. It would seem that the long and scandalous story with the privatization of Bashneft has finally come to an end, but the “burden of the past” of the company seems to be so heavy and unsightly that new revelations are becoming known.
Last week, a number of foreign media announced the release of a documentary Bashneft. Bash on bash" filmed by a group of investigative journalists. The film is about possible frauds that took place in Bashneft, in the organization of which the company's executives, representatives big business, as well as employees of another major player in the oil market - PJSC LUKOIL. Specific names are also called - the former head of Bashneft Alexander Korsik, Lukoil employee Valery Subbotin, as well as a well-known oil trader in certain circles Mikhail Golub. As the publication writes political lore, the influential defenders of the latter can now do their best to prevent the appearance in the press of information about the affairs that took place inside Bashneft. However, the secret, as you know, always becomes clear.
love with interest
The fact that between Golub, "Bashneft" and "LUKOIL" there is an imperceptible and at the same time very suspicious connection, opinions have already been expressed earlier. It was hard not to wonder why Bashneft sometimes behaves as if it were branch fuel monster Vagit Alekperova, which, in theory, was supposed to compete. So, the main strategic project Bashneft, capable of providing it with a prosperous future, was considered the development of the Trebs and Titov field, one of the largest in continental Russia. However, the company unexpectedly transferred the license obtained with a fight for its development to its subsidiary Bashneft-Polyus, after which it even more unexpectedly sold a blocking stake in its subsidiary to Lukoil, which also coveted the field, but was not admitted to the competition. Thanks to this, the latter gained access to a strategic resource and began to develop it as part of a joint project with Bashneft.
After that, the love that broke out between the two oil companies grew stronger every year. It got to the point that when they started talking about the privatization of Bashneft, its president Alexander Korsik publicly declared that only Lukoil met the privatization criteria! Obviously, such statements on the part of the head of the company, which the state is preparing for sale, can hardly be considered ethical.
Love is a mysterious thing and often cannot be explained. But apparently not in this case. True, here it turned out to be somewhat perverted - the third participant in the process, it seems, was Mikhail Golub, who, apparently, is the true owner of the companies Trade-Nafta, Arctic Bunker, Exim Limited, and others.
“Almost all the oil produced at the Trebs and Titov field is sold by Bashneft to structures controlled by one person,- wrote Novaya Gazeta. - At the same time, at below market prices. Then Golub sells the raw material to the only possible buyer - LLC Lukoil-Reservenefteprodukt. But, interestingly, Lukoil buys oil from Golub for quite market prices. This makes it possible to assume that the difference between the price of buying oil from Bashneft and the selling price of Lukoil settles in offshore and is divided by the participants in the scheme..
The whole unpretentious scheme, it seems, looked like this: Mikhail Golub’s offshore companies bought the produced oil from Bashneft at a reduced price, after which they resold it to the LUKOIL structure, and the resulting difference (up to $ 25 per ton) was withdrawn, again, offshore. According to experts, thanks to this scheme, the state lost about $300 million. The winners, it turns out, were Mikhail Golub, the top management of Lukoil and Alexander Korsik with his deputy Ruslan Gensh.
The scale of relations is evidenced by the data cited by Novaya Gazeta. At the end of 2014, after it became known about the return of Bashneft to state ownership, the board of directors of the company hastily approved transactions for the sale of petroleum products for a fantastic amount of 443 billion rubles, which is 88% of the book value of Bashneft itself. At the same time, a significant part of the contracts fell - that's a surprise! - to companies associated with Mikhail Golub. Thus, Exim Group and Arctic Bunker got a deal for 85 billion rubles, Trubond Limited - 98.5 billion rubles, Minko Enterprise Limited and Trade Nafta - 83 billion rubles. Apparently, it was about the fact that the company was deliberately "merged" before privatization.
Scandal in the oil family
Until recently, all this was evidenced either by documents or indirect facts. Now there is a real witness. In the investigative film mentioned above, which promises to start a new round of scandal, he shared his confessions Evgeny Mulyukov- former business partner of Mikhail Golub and ex-co-owner of Trade-Nafta LLC. The discord between them occurred just after the directorate of Bashneft approved a package of billions of contracts for the supply of oil.
“It was quite obvious that this was a fraudulent contract. And its goal is to burden Bashneft before the change of ownership. And when it comes new director, he will see that all volumes of oil products have already been sold. And I, of course, demanded that Golub break this contract. Moreover, I did not agree on this deal. But got rejected.", - says Mulyukov during the film.
Not wanting to participate in deliberately suspicious cases, Mulyukov turned to the leadership of the FSB and the TFR, asking them to check the legality of transactions that could result in big losses for the state. “Mulyukov’s appeals provoked a reaction,- reported then bfm.ru. - So, in Bashneft they were called untrue. However, they did not explain whether the agreements mentioned by the businessman were terminated or whether they continue to operate. If not, then it is possible that the new owner of Bashneft may receive the company with an encumbrance.”
The noise raised by Mulyukov turned out to be so strong that it began to harm the interests of Trade-Nafta. Trials and trials followed. According to the authors of the film, the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court seized any property of Mikhail Golub around the world within 25 million dollars. At the same time, Mulyukov, through the court, demanded that the documents of Trade-Nafta be provided to him for an audit.
It must be assumed that the oil trader hardly liked this. And soon Mulyukov found out that a criminal case had been opened against him on charges of extortion - the statement was written by none other than Mikhail Golub. True, as the authors of the investigation emphasize, neither the victim himself nor his only witness can remember on which day of October the crime took place. Yes, and the place is called strange - the roadside of the Odintsovo highway. At the same time, billing cell phones Mulyukov and Golub, as well as data from cameras recording the movement of cars, show that for the entire month none of them was in the place indicated by the victim Golub. As a result, it’s hard not to wonder if Mulyukov’s lawyer is right Fedor Trusov, who stated in the film literally the following: “As soon as after the change of ownership it became clear that the former management of Bashneft remained, and all the contracts that Yevgeny Mulyukov disputed remain in force, the state authorities suddenly, unexpectedly showed such harshness towards him. Probably, in order for Eugene to stop writing various appeals to state authorities.
SPECIFICALLY
You can believe the information presented in the film, but you can not - after all, this is only a journalistic investigation, and not a court decision that has legal force. But one cannot fail to note numerous coincidences: Mulyukov is trying to draw attention to strange transactions and receives a criminal case, Bashneft, returned to state ownership, is preparing for sale - and information about possible muddy schemes in which Lukoil and Mikhail Golub may be involved. We emphasize - it can be. However, if over and over again the name of Vagit Alekperov's company sounds in such stories, this is a reason to think. Or the company itself about its reputation, or to the relevant authorities - about the interests and security of the state.
Why did the vice-president of Lukoil for the supply and sale of oil, who claimed the place of Vagit Alekperov, leave to "work" abroad
Litasco is a unique phenomenon for the Russian oil business. It seems that this is the only oil trader of Russian origin who not only sells foreign oil and oil products, but also does it in volumes comparable to the supplies of related companies. In December 2016, the former vice-president of Lukoil for the supply and sale of oil, Valery Subbotin, boarded a plane and left Russia. Most likely for a long time. In Lukoil, Subbotin's departure from the central office was announced only in February 2017 and explained by the "planned rotation of the management staff", although the company perceived him as one of the successors to President Vagit Alekperov.
In fact, Subbotin was saved. The very next day after the privatization of Bashneft in October 2016, Rosneft rapidly took control of a new subsidiary. Familiarization with the documents, more like searches and seizures, a month later led to the termination of part of the contracts with Lukoil - they raised questions, explained Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontiev. And a threat loomed over Subbotin, two oil traders are sure. It was he who was responsible for trade relations with Bashneft. The main blow was dealt to Subbotin, because even earlier he had disagreements with the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, says a participant in the negotiations between Rosneft and Lukoil. Staying in Russia in such a situation was dangerous.
Mikhail Leontiev
Now Subbotin, according to his acquaintances, visits the USA and Switzerland. It was not possible to contact him. In Geneva, he heads the board of directors of Litasco, Lukoil's own trading company. In 2015, she became the largest buyer of Russian oil according to Forbes. Traders were sure that in 2016 Litasco would definitely lose its positions due to friction between Lukoil and Rosneft. But that did not happen. Moreover, Litasco managed to keep the contract for the sale of oil from the fields named after. Trebs and Titov, which is produced by the joint venture of Bashneft and Lukoil.
Litasco is a unique phenomenon for the Russian oil business. It seems that this is the only oil trader of Russian origin who not only sells foreign oil and oil products, but also does it in volumes comparable to the supplies of related companies. How did Lukoil manage to take a prominent place in the global oil trade?
Intermediary Time
Lukoil hasn’t come up with anything new!” exclaims one of the former leaders of Soyuznefteexport. It is this organization from the system of the Ministry foreign trade The USSR, according to the interlocutor of Forbes, became the prototype of Litasco. Until 1991, Soyuznefteexport was an absolute monopoly in the export of Russian oil and had offices around the world. In spite of annual turnover in 200 million tons of oil, several dozen traders and 200 service personnel worked in Soyuznefteexport, says former employee organizations.
In 1991, oil producers, refineries and traders received the right to export oil. Licenses were issued so uncontrollably that in the same year the permitted volume of exports exceeded the actual resources available, Fuel and Energy Minister Vladimir Lopukhin reported to Deputy Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar. “It was such a robbery of the state! Everyone, including the church, received export quotas,” a former Soyuznefteexport employee resents. This is not an exaggeration: the financial and economic department of the Moscow Patriarchate was indeed a co-founder of one of the exporters - the International Economic Cooperation company.
The first Russian private trader was Urals Trading, founded by people from Soyuznefteexport. One of the founders of Urals was Andrey Pannikov, a Soviet intelligence officer and a former employee of the Swedish representative office of Soyuznefteexport. Thanks to his connections, Urals has become a significant player in the market, according to a former employee of the company. For example, Pannikov's friend and business partner was Vladimir Putin's friend Gennady Timchenko, who in 1997 founded the trading company Gunvor.
Pannikov himself told Forbes that he participated in the creation of Lukoil and allegedly personally applied for an export license for the company at the Ministry of Foreign Trade. This is not surprising, says a former business partner of Pannikov: the circle of workers in the Soviet oil industry was very narrow, and everyone knew each other well. Urals even provided Lukoil with a room in the Zvezdnaya Hotel near VDNKh (the company had a Moscow office there), in the early 1990s, Vagit Alekperov, the president of Lukoil and the former Deputy Minister of the Oil and Gas Industry of the USSR, used it as an office.
Vagit Alekperov
It was Urals that first exported significant volumes of Lukoil's oil. Other major buyers were Taurus Petroleum and Western Petroleum. They were affiliated with each other, one of the traders told Forbes. Taurus belonged to the American Benjamin Pollner and purchased such significant volumes from Lukoil that market participants suspected him of having links with Russian company. According to Businessweek, Pollner was one of the rich boys - traders from the circle of the legendary Mark Rich, a longtime friend of Soviet foreign trade leaders. In the early 1990s, his Marc Rich + Co (now Glencore) was one of the biggest buyers of Russian oil.
“In Russia, the devil knows what happened. Everyone threw each other, ”recalls the Russian oil trader. Buying Russian oil not directly, but through traders, foreign refineries reduced their risks. This suited the oilmen as well: traders could secure a 90% advance payment. But there was one catch: Western banks were reluctant to finance Russian supplies. The exception was the French BNP Paribas, with whom Taurus collaborated. Contact with the Geneva branch of the bank was also established at Urals, says a former employee of the company: the financial director of the oil trader was a native of Paribas. Urals was a Lukoil trader for about three years, but Lukoil's exports were tied to Urals employees for a long time.
Assistants from Urals
A phone call on New Year's Eve 1998 found Oleg Yakovitsky, Special Projects Director at Lukoil Europe, preparing for the holidays. The commanding voice of his boss Valery Golovushkin was heard in the receiver: “Urgently get ready, we are flying to Romania!” “Oh, everything is dust,” Yakovitsky sighed, packed his suitcase, said goodbye to his family and soon flew to Bucharest on a service “Lukoil” plane. There, the oilmen agreed to buy the Petrotel refinery and immediately flew to Burgas, Bulgaria, where the sale of Neftochim Burgas was being prepared. There were several applicants for the largest refinery in the Balkans, but the Bulgarians assured Lukoil representatives that they would get the plant: “Because you have a larger aircraft than other buyers.”
In the 1990s, their own aircraft worked flawlessly for plant directors, a former Urals employee confirms. The trick with the plane was hardly a secret for the former head of the Danish branch of Urals and a native of Soyuznefteexport, Valery Golovushkin. In 1994, he headed Lukoil Europe, Lukoil's representative office in London. Its main task was to exclude Western middlemen from exports.
At the turn of the 1990s-2000s, all the world's oil majors acquired specialized trading divisions. Their example was followed by Russian oilmen. Functionally, these were foreign firms, on which the margin from the sale of their own oil settled, one of the oil traders says: “Actually, this was a withdrawal of capital.” A simple scheme made it possible to earn an additional $ 1-2 per barrel, says Forbes' interlocutor. Subsequently, Yukos was crushed for such schemes and two of its main shareholders went to jail.
Lukoil went further than its competitors and in 2002 announced the centralization of export deliveries at one subsidiary. It was Alekperov's idea, says a Lukoil employee. And in many ways it was a forced measure. Western investors have criticized Lukoil for selling oil to its offshore subsidiaries at underpriced prices. Because of this, the parent company, whose ADRs were traded on the London and Berlin stock exchanges, lost about $ 1 billion in 2000-2003, complained the head of Hermitage Capital fund William Browder.
Swiss Lukoil-Geneva was chosen to consolidate exports, which in 2000 was renamed Litasco (Lukoil International Trading and Supply Company). Switzerland has a very loyal tax legislation, although formally the country is not considered an offshore and is located in the very center of Europe, oil traders explain. The restructuring coincided with the departure from Lukoil of one of its founders and export curator Ralif Safin. His place in the status of the first vice-president of Lukoil was taken by Dmitry Tarasov. He worked at Soyuznefteexport, and in the early 1990s headed the Finnish division of Urals (Timchenko also worked there). His former Urals colleague Golovushkin, who until the early 2000s was more visible in Lukoil's expansion into Eastern Europe, moved from London to Geneva and headed Litasco.
Window to the world
Own trader cost the company a lot, says a person close to Lukoil: investments in the capital of Litasco and guarantees to banks amounted to about $ 7–10 billion. When creating Litasco, the task was set for the ROI ratio (the ratio of profit to investment) to reach 15% , but it didn't happen right away. And it was also not possible to quickly close all the exports of Lukoil to Litasco. In 2005, the trader sold 87% of the oil exported by Lukoil, in 2011 this share remained approximately at the same level. Now Lukoil indicates that Litasco carries out all deliveries of Lukoil outside of Russia.
Beyond Sales own products and supplies of oil to Lukoil's foreign refineries, Litasco was faced with the task of selling foreign oil in comparable volumes. In 2004 third parties accounted for 28% of Litasco's trade, in 2008 for 40% and two years later for 52%. In 2015, the ratio was 51 to 49 in favor of Lukoil. The trader is a "window to the world" for Lukoil, according to the Litasco website.
Litasco significantly increased the volume of trade with third parties thanks to new strategy, which was adopted in 2007, said Valery Subbotin, vice president of Lukoil, in an interview with Oil of Russia magazine. It consisted in connecting all foreign offices of Lukoil to trade (at that time it was 17 branches and representative offices around the world). “They began to optimize flows, sell when it is profitable, use arbitrage,” one of the market participants lists. According to him, due to trading operations, Litasco's margin could increase by $2.5-3 per barrel.
Valery Subbotin
There is another version. At first, the trader grew due to the huge volumes of Lukoil, for which he did not have to fight. Large volumes made it possible to save on freight and loans, and even then Litasco was able to offer good prices to the market.
A person close to Lukoil connects the success of Litasco with a Bulgarian with Iraqi roots, Gati Al-Jeburi. In the early 2000s, he was deputy to two Bulgarian ministers - energy and finance. And then Golovushkin called him to Litasco as a financial director. In 2005, Golovushkin went on a promotion, becoming Lukoil's vice president for supplies and sales, and Al-Jeburi took the chair of the head of Litasco.
The Bulgarian decided to conquer new markets. In China, Litasco initially had to dump, recalls one of the oil traders: to reduce either their trading profits or the profits of refineries producing fuel oil. All such decisions were approved in Moscow and coordinated "monstrously long", says the source of Forbes: corporate processes inside Lukoil resemble a large Russian ministry. Gati Al-Jaburi not only saw new markets, but also managed to break through the Lukoil bureaucracy.
As a result, Litasco's sales increased from 2005 to 2010 by 37%, to 125 million tons, while Lukoil's exports grew by only 6%. In 2015, the trader sold 165 million tons of oil and oil products. Litasco's revenue is not disclosed, but from Lukoil's IFRS statements it can be concluded that in 2015 it was at least $63 billion, and in 2016 - $68 billion.
The role of personality
At the beginning of 2011, a collapse occurred in the Latvian port of Ventspils. The tanks of the Ventbunkers terminal were filled to capacity with fuel oil. Because of this, 1,700 cisterns with cargo accumulated at the railway entrances to the port, waiting for unloading. The fuel oil accumulated in the terminal belonged to Litasco, which refused to pour it into tankers, Ventbunkers reported. Litasco explained that due to the fault of the terminal, the fuel oil had deteriorated and no longer met the requirements of the contract. There could be another reason for the conflict: Ventbunkers was going to replace Litasco with another trader - Mercuria Energy. As a result, it was possible to unblock the port only a few weeks later, with the mediation of the Minister of Railways of Latvia.
This story is extremely atypical for a trader, one of the Forbes interlocutors assures: Litasco, like the parent company, is not prone to risks and tries not to get involved in conflicts. In the mid-2000s, in a matter of years, Gunvor became the main trader of Russian oil, and Lukoil accepted the rules of the game, although they were inconvenient for its trader. Litasco and Gunvor "do not have many client crossings", rather the practice adopted in the ports at that time caused inconvenience: with rising prices, Gunvor tankers were loaded more often, and the loading window for other traders shifted. And vice versa, the Forbes interlocutor says: “Oil has sunk - the Gunvor ships are put at the end of the line, and the rest are pushed in.”
The owners of Lukoil very clearly understand the boundaries of what is permissible, and this is one of the secrets of their success, Forbes interlocutors admit. In 2016, Lukoil was one of the contenders for Bashneft, because these two companies have close ties. Bashneft-Polyus (25% from Lukoil) produces oil at the fields named after. Trebs and Titov (reserves - 140 million tons of oil), and Litasco sells it. In 2015, according to Forbes, a Lukoil trader exported 1.4 million tons of JV oil for $535 million, in 2016 - almost 2.2 million tons for $634 million. But events took a different turn: “Bashneft went to Rosneft. "Let's assume that she got into good hands", - Leonid Fedun, vice president of Lukoil, commented on this deal.
Leonid Fedun
After the purchase of Bashneft, Rosneft began to rebuild its trade policy, and contracts with Lukoil were the first to go under the knife. On November 1, 2016, the contract for the supply of Lukoil oil to the Bashneft refinery and the return supply of oil products to Litasco was terminated. Bashneft-Polyus also wanted to revise the oil supplies. But for the time being, Rosneft cannot refuse Litasco's services, two oil traders say: the only economically viable shipping point, the port of Varandey, belongs to Lukoil. Therefore, deliveries to Litasco continue, but prices have been recalculated since the beginning of the year, says one of Forbes' interlocutors. new price he does not name, but notes that it has become more profitable for Rosneft. The price formula has not changed, notes a source close to Lukoil: “What Brent was predicted, such a price was entered into the contract.” Litasco does not comment on matters related to business or trade, a spokeswoman said. Lukoil did not respond to a request from Forbes. From the commentary of the press service of Rosneft, one can understand that the contract has become more profitable: Rosneft saw an opportunity to optimize product sales channels and, as a result, increase economic efficiency sales, and the existing agreements are aimed at maximizing profits.
Vagit Alekperov did not dare to open conflict with Sechin. In general, he rarely interferes in the work of his trading company. An oil trader close to Lukoil recalls such a case. Due to hostilities in the north of Iraq, all local oil is drained into a common pipe. This reduces the quality and, as a result, the cost of raw materials that Litasco exports from the Iraqi West Qurna-2 field. But the purchase prices did not take this into account, and the trader began to lose money. Alekperov had to personally negotiate with the leadership of the Iraqi state oil company SOMO on a fairer price. As a result, they managed to reduce it by $ 13. “The role of the individual in history must be respected,” notes an acquaintance of Alekperov. “Trading is about relationships and relationships again.”
Sergey Titov
In contact with
Original material: "Forbes"
News that mentions Valery Subbotin:
Click the button next to the announcement to view the news on the source's website.11/07/2012 Another vice-president of LUKOIL bought its shares for almost 10 million rubles. MOSCOW, 6 Nov - Prime. Vice President for Supply and Sales, member of the board of the largest Russian private oil company OAO LUKOIL LKOH > Valery Subbotin purchased the company's shares for 9.986 million rubles, the company said in a statement. Subbotin's share in the authorized capital of LUKOIL increased after the purchase on November 1 of 5.26 thousand shares from 0.0048% to 0.0054%. LUKOIL managers began to actively buy the company's shares from…... 05/17/2012 Vice President of LUKOIL: various options deliveries of Iraqi oil to refineries in Southeast Asia, China and India. of Russia Valery Subbotin, Vice President for Supplies and Sales of OAO LUKOIL... 15.05.2012 Vice President of LUKOIL: The terminal in Barcelona will serve to strengthen the company's position in the Mediterranean, North and West African regions.... LITASCO SA has formed a joint venture with the Spanish Meroil SA on equal shares to create one of the largest oil product terminals in the Mediterranean, Valery Subbotin, Vice President for Supply and Sales of OAO LUKOIL, said in an interview with Oil of Russia magazine...
Valery Subbotin, Senior Vice President of the company, will head international company Litasco. Vagit Alekperov withdraws assets?
In early February, large-scale personnel changes took place at Lukoil. One of them is the departure of the company's senior vice president for supplies and sales, Valery Subbotin. He will head Litasco, Lukoil's international trader.
According to sources from the Lukoil company, Valery Subbotin has long been ready to say goodbye to Russia, as he has already applied for US citizenship and even received a green card. Yes, and his family said goodbye to their homeland a long time ago. And Subbotin himself spends more time in Switzerland than in Russia. From Switzerland, he manages the trading company "Luko-Litasco".
In principle, Lukoil has long adjusted its management of international assets. And he does this with the help of Lukoy Overseas, registered in the British Virgin Islands. For some reason, the company's office is located not in Moscow, but in the UAE. And this despite the fact that Lukoil positions itself as a national company.
What kind of roll then occurred in the heads of the leadership of Lukoil? Why such pro-Western sentiments? And everything, it turns out, is simple. On January 13 of this year, America extended sanctions against individuals and companies from Russia.
And if most companies, taking into account the sanctions, develop their business within the country, then Lukoil, apparently, decided to make a knight's move - to transfer its business abroad. And nowhere else, but to America itself. So, it is quite possible that we will soon learn about the new Lukoil-America company.
It cannot be said that this will be such a surprise, since the owners of Lukoil, Vagit Alekperov and Leonid Fedun, not only have business abroad, but also constantly withdraw assets there.
Lukoil is looking for where it is deeper
The co-owners of Lukoil already have an American business - Panatlantic Exploration, which they acquired back in 2010. The chairman of the board of directors of the company is Olga Plaksina, she is also the chairman of the board of IFD Kapital, which manages the assets of Lukoil.
Panatlantic Exploration is engaged in deep sea drilling. Business is capital intensive. The price of one well is about $100 million, and the chances of success are 30%. The company's office is located in Houston, the American oil capital. Lukoil's investments in the company have already exceeded $100 million.
The operational management of the company is carried out by Leonid Fedun. According to experts, such projects are not estimated in a year or two, but are designed for decades. Apparently, Alekperov and Fedun back in 2010. before the sanctions, they seriously and for a long time decided to move to America. And they prepared a new springboard for this.
Leonid Fedun
Offshore childhood "Lukoil"
For the first time, an offshore company appeared among the shareholders of Lukoil back in 1999. Prior to this, the company's shareholders were quite transparent - the state, companies affiliated with Lukoil itself, investment banks and the American company ARCO. Maybe the owners of the company already had a love for America at that time?
And if America is a moot point, then the offshore life of Lukoil began just then. The company was called Reforma Investment, it owned 9% of the shares.
The leaders of Lukoil themselves shrugged their shoulders in bewilderment. Like, we have no idea what kind of company it is. Behind it is a pool of some unknown investors. However, everything said that everything and everyone is well aware.
Only one bid was submitted for the competition, as the second bidder offered only $1,000 more than the starting price, which indicates that the result of the competition was a foregone conclusion.
What reasons forced Lukoil to hide the true buyer of its shares? Probably no one will ever know about this. But one thing is clear that even then Lukoil entered offshore life. And later healed her to the fullest.
Lukoil is moving offshore
The withdrawal of money to offshore companies by Lukoil is also not new. Back in 2014 The company published reports, according to which the company's net profit decreased by almost 40% over the year, while project revenue increased by 2%. How can this be? Profits are down and revenues are up.
Experts attribute this to the “optimization” of the tax base. At the same time, Lukoil's top management is increasing its shares by buying back the company's American depositary receipts. At the same time, there is a reduction in investment programs. And all this, of course, increases dividends in dollars.
All this is reminiscent of the behavior of the owners of TNK-BP, when before the sale of Rosneft they got rid of their assets. Now the management of Lukoil is doing the same. But for the time being, there is no talk of any sale of it in Russia.
It is also interesting that by investing a lot of money in the dubious West Qurna-2 project, Lukoil freezes the work of the Ukhta Oil Refinery, which has existed since 1934. What neither war, nor perestroika, nor crises succeeded in, was successfully managed by Lukoil's management. And I don't give a damn that Vagit Alekperov promised not to cut staff. He took and deceived people.
60% of Lukoil's profits are going to be spent on paying dividends, that is, the management actually pays the money to itself, which experts call "hidden rewards." It is also alarming that in 2013 top management received a salary of 3 billion rubles, and in 2014. 1.5 billion rubles Have you come up with ingenious schemes so as not to glow?
According to various estimates, Lukoil back in 2014. withdrew about $ 5 billion offshore. In addition, it turned out that, with some joy, some Cypriot companies LUKOIL Employee Limited and Lukoil Investments Cyprus Ltd own 11% of the company's shares. Why would they receive such an honor? The excuse is the presence of Lukoil filling stations on the island. But they are available all over the world, for some reason Lukoil does not offer a share to other countries.
Lukoil also refuses to disclose the margin for oil refining. Why? But because part of its factories are located in Italy. And it is beneficial for the company to have money deposited in the accounts of foreign banks.
Goodbye, Russia?
When its citizens are thrown out of the country, this can be considered a personal matter for everyone. Man will always look for the best. When a large private company is going to leave the country, then this is already a state problem.
Lukoil is also looking for where it is better, or rather, where it is more profitable for it to conduct its business. And she does not care how the country's economy will develop and whether it will develop at all. It seems that apart from the profits of Vagit Alekperov and Leonid Fedun, nothing matters. Or are they afraid that they will be swallowed up by Rosneft?
Be that as it may, this situation demonstrates that even large private business does not feel social responsibility. You can freeze the work of the plant, you can give empty promises, you can "optimize" tax schemes so that these taxes are not paid to the budget. You can withdraw money offshore, regardless of the requirements of the country's leadership on deoffshorization.
How to fix the situation? And is it possible? Probably, maybe. Only other people will do it. Which will think and act in a completely different way than the leadership of Lukoil.
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