Biography Subbotin Lukoil. Personnel changes have taken place in Lukoil. Assistants from Urals

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 application was submitted for the contest, as the second bidder offered only $1,000 more than the starting price, which indicates that the result of the contest was predetermined.

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 a 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.

Now I will give a few quotes and links to primary sources.

Molodtsov Kirill Valentinovich, Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation.

I myself am fond of cars and helped my comrades open the ZIL Factory Museum in Sokolniki. (http://tass.ru/opinions/interviews/4096362)

One of Novak's deputies, Kirill Molodtsov, uses an Audi A8 as an official car, but occasionally gets to the ministry driving his own representative ZIL. The official is a big fan of these cars and, as a hobby, restores and tunes them himself. (https://www.znak.com/2015-12-08/na_chem_peredvigayutsya_sechin_bogdanov_i_drugie_vidnye_neftyaniki_strany)

Kirill Molodtsov, Anti-corruption declaration 2015: Passenger car, Porsche Cayman S Other, ZIL 119 "Youth" - bus Spouse: Passenger car, Aston Martin
Anti-corruption declaration 2016: Passenger car, Porsche Cayenne Passenger car, Lada XRAY Spouse: Passenger car, Aston Martin (http://declarator.org/person/11709/)

Despite the fact that business with affiliated structures is not welcomed not only in state, but also in commercial companies, so to speak, Molodtsov started making money in parallel while still at Sibur.
One could speculate about the ethics of Molodtsov's behavior as a top manager of Sibur, given that he moonlighted at the expense of his own company. But, apparently, in Sibur itself today they have nothing against the old sins of their former employee. Moreover, the fact that after the appointment of Molodtsov as Deputy Minister of Energy, almost all cargo transportation of this structure was transferred to his wife speaks of loyalty to him on the part of the holding's management. …its revenue and profit increased hundreds of times!
One way or another, financial transactions alone with the participation of Kirill Molodtsov personally are revealed in these documents for 700 million rubles. ... we can conclude that the main purpose of all the numerous and complicated operations could be precisely the withdrawal of funds from controlled companies, including with the aim, as one might assume, of creating the appearance of the legality of obtaining the declared income of happy spouses.
In what, in what, and in the “monetization” of his position, Molodtsov is really well done. He also succeeded in shaping the image of a respectable government official. Looking at the list of his awards, one begins to suspect that the commemorative medal “XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games 2014 in Sochi” or the medal “For the Return of Crimea” were issued in the government to everyone and indiscriminately. But these awards do not say a word about how their owners succeeded in converting public service into big money.
Kirill Molodtsov in a corrupt tandem with Lukoil's Subbotin (https://www.rospres.org/government/18515/)

Subbotin Valery Sergeevich, top manager of the oil company LUKOIL (https://rucompromat.com/persons/subbotin_valeriy)

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. (http://www.moscow-post.com/economics/lukojl_svalit_v_ameriku23782/)

December 2016 former vice president"Lukoil" for the supply and sale of oil Valery Subbotin boarded the plane and left Russia. Now Subbotin, according to his acquaintances, visits the USA and Switzerland. (https://rucompromat.com/articles/kak_treyder_lukoyla_zanyal_zametnoe_mesto_na_ryinke_torgovli_neftyu)

Let's take a break.

Why am I torturing you with these quotes? It's simple: the company MSC6 AMOSIL (http://msc6.ru/), which bought out all the assets of the 6th ZiL workshop (a complete warehouse of spare parts for limousines and unfinished cars), as well as rented the workshop itself, conducts business with funds and in interests of Kirill Molodtsov and Valery Subbotin.

And here is the same Yunost Molodtsov, indicated in the declaration for 2015, but mysteriously disappeared from the documents in 2016.

Sold? I doubt. Selling such a car is difficult, this is kitsch nonsense, not Youth. From the original car, only the body remained, the chassis elements of the motor were taken from the Chevrolet Suburban, and in the cabin, in general, godless fucked up with screens and all sorts of electric drives controlled from a tablet.

I don't mean anything bad. On the contrary: Molodtsov and Subbotin managed to make a business on rarities, and in such a way that no one is offended. The question is different: they have cars in the sixth workshop and at the exhibition in Sokolniki that de jure belong to ZiL. It was they who were supposed to form the basis of the museum of the plant, which they promised to build instead of the destroyed old one, which was in the Melnikov building. And where is this museum?

Meanwhile, all the exhibits of the failed museum are at the disposal of the private company MSC6 AMOSIL.

Lukoil today announced personnel appointments. They occurred as part of the planned rotation of the management staff, the company emphasizes.

The post of first vice president of Lukoil was taken by Alexander Matytsyn, who previously held the position of senior vice president of the company for finance.

Sergey Kukura has been appointed Advisor to the President of the company, previously he was First Vice President for Economics and Finance.

Vadim Vorobyov was transferred to the position of senior vice president for supplies and sales, and Rustem Gimaletdinov, who previously headed Lukoil-Ukhtaneftepererabotka, was appointed vice president for oil refining, petrochemistry, and gas processing. Alexei Ivanov, who previously worked as the head of the technology and production planning department, became the general director of Lukoil-Ukhtaneftepererabotka, the press release says.

Valery Subbotin is finishing his work in the company's central office. Previously, he was Lukoil's senior vice president for supplies and sales. Subbotin is moving to the position of chairman of the board of directors of Lukoil's international trader, Litasco, Interfax reported at the end of December, citing two sources familiar with the situation. A Reuters source then connected Subbotin's departure with 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 oil sales scheme, naturally, not in favor of Lukoil. There can be no good relations here,” one trader told the agency. Subbotin was responsible at Lukoil for building the company's trade policy in the domestic market and in the supply of oil for export.

In October 2016, 60.16% of the voting shares of Bashneft were bought by Rosneft. She immediately had questions about the work of Bashneft - in particular, about how the company buys oil from Lukoil. On November 1, the contract for the supply of Lukoil oil to the Bashneft refinery and the return supply of oil products to its subsidiary, Litasco, was terminated. Another contract - for the sale of Bashneft-Polyus oil - was extended for a year, Interfax reported in early January.

In mid-January, the president of Lukoil, Vagit Alekperov, announced that Rosneft and Lukoil had reached an understanding. “As far as I understand, the new shareholder of our joint project [Rosneft] had some doubts. They conducted an audit, and we re-signed all agreements, all contracts for the sale of oil, for the development of projects<...>I am sure that both shareholders are interested in the dynamic development of these projects. Today we have no misunderstandings both in the development of projects and in the implementation of the products of the Trebs and Titov project,” he said in an interview with Interfax.

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, it became the largest buyer of Russian oil by Forbes versions. 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 200 million tons of oil, several dozen traders and 200 service personnel worked in Soyuznefteexport, says a former employee of the organization.

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. It's not surprising, he says. former business partner Pannikova: 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 was owned by the American Benjamin Pollner and bought such significant volumes from Lukoil that market participants suspected him of having links with a 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 the eve of the new year, 1998, found the director of special projects Lukoil Europe Oleg Yakovitsky for pre-holiday preparations. 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.

In addition to selling its own products and supplying 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 a new strategy, which was adopted in 2007, Lukoil Vice President Valery Subbotin said 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 - 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"

Whose tricks on Gelandewagen excited the capital and especially its police, the press continues to savor the juicy details of the "friendship" of the managing director of the company's branch in Singapore, Valentin Ivanov, with the underage model Liza Adamenko, as a new scandal threatens to break out.

Another senior vice-president of Lukoil, Valery Subbotin, and Russian Deputy Minister of Energy Kirill Molodtsov may become its "co-authors". Perhaps this next story will not be as noisy as the first two mentioned, but it will surely backfire on the state with much more serious consequences ...

Shamsuarov Jr. was by no means bluffing, threatening the metropolitan policemen who were pursuing him with his connections at the top. Subbotin and Molodtsov, the people involved in the story we want to talk about, demonstrated even more serious opportunities, showing that, if necessary, “for the sake of business”, the instructions of the Minister of Energy, the Prime Minister, the President of the country himself, and even Russia’s international obligations can be ignored.

Currency rivers, offshore shores

In the post-Soviet era, a legend spread that people who came from business can become the most effective officials. Like, they have already stolen… excuse me, they have earned money, they are self-sufficient, and therefore they will not steal in the civil service, but will only care about the interests of the people and the state… So. If someone still lives in a world of such illusions, then familiarity with the content "Panamanian dossier" help him get rid of them forever.

The declarations of the Molodtsovs are read like a novel from the life of fabulous rich people. If cars, then the most luxurious ones are S-class Mercedes, Porsche Cayenne, sports Aston Martin ... If real estate, then the most prestigious and expensive - in respectable areas of Moscow (Golden Mile, Rogozhsky Val, d. 13, p. 2), St. Petersburg and the Moscow region (“Rublyovka”, Odintsovsky district, Gorki, 10) ... The explanation for all this indescribable wealth for the family of the Deputy Minister is quite traditional - it was acquired by overwork in the commercial sphere. Molodtsov is indeed not a novice in this industry; he has been working in the gas industry and gas processing for almost twenty years. occupied leadership positions at OAO Sibur-Holding, worked as a top manager of the Eastern Siberia-GAZ project, deputy chief executive officer, vice president for feasibility studies and coordination with II and III phases at Shtokman Development AG. In a word, in 2013, he came to the post of Deputy Minister of Energy as a more than wealthy person.

But, apparently, Molodtsov himself did not think so. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to explain the fact that already in the second year of Molodtsov's work in the ministry, his income grew 14 times at once - from 5.9 million rubles in 2013 to 82.2 million in 2014. In passing, we note that his wife, who continues to do business, has increased income by almost four times! When her husband left for the ministry, in 2013, Elena Molodtsova earned a little more than 12 million rubles - twice as much as her husband, and a year later - 41.3 million rubles ... It seems that this respectable couple is striving with all their might to justify their sonorous surname and be always and in everything good fellows.

And yet… Where does the money come from? It could be assumed that Molodtsov, accustomed to luxury, was not enough for a life of an official salary and he began to sell off his former assets. But experts note that if something was sold by the deputy minister, it was only to cover up the main business.

Despite the fact that business with affiliated structures is not welcomed not only in state, but also in commercial companies, so to speak, Molodtsov started making money in parallel while still at Sibur. This became known after the publication of the Panama Papers. If you go to the website of investigative journalists, you can see that Kirill Molodtsov, together with a certain Anna Averina, registered the company Matrix Overseas Trading Inc in the now most popular tax-free British Virgin Islands in 1999. By the way, judging by the data of SPARK, Molodtsov began joint business with Averina back in 1997, when in the famous Petushki, in the Vladimir region, he registered Moloko LLC with her. But it was clearly not the milk trade that brought the partners the main profit. The official did not even begin to rewrite "Moloko" to his wife, as he did with a number of other companies registered to him. Although a year and a half after the appointment of the ministry, Molodtsov nevertheless liquidated this company.

Unlike, say, Palace LLC, Nadezhda LLC, Fortis KM LLC and Terminal Service LLC, where the Deputy Minister is still either the sole owner or a co-owner with a share of 50 to 90%. Only LLC "Tank-Yard" and LLC "Success" were transferred to his wife. Apparently, it is the income from loans to these companies that allows the Deputy Minister today to make ends meet: drive a Porsche and pay for expensive real estate.

You involuntarily pay attention to how coolly a state official conducts his commercial affairs. As follows from the page on the website with information posted on Molodtsov, he liquidated his Virginia offshore only a month after the Panama scandal happened - in April 2016. Until 2015, Matrix Overseas Trading Inc. was quite active, but for some reason Molodtsov forgot to mention it in his declarations. Molodtsov, we recall, began to engage in trade in petrochemical products through it even with the arrival at Sibur.

One could speculate about the ethics of Molodtsov's behavior as a top manager of Sibur, given that he moonlighted at the expense of his own company. But, apparently, in Sibur itself today they have nothing against the old sins of their former employee. Moreover, the fact that after the appointment of Molodtsov as Deputy Minister of Energy, almost all cargo transportation of this structure was transferred to his wife speaks of loyalty to him on the part of the holding's management. As soon as Molodtsov left for the ministry and re-registered Tank-Yard LLC as his wife, this company became the main carrier of chemical raw materials of the Sibur-Holding group of companies, and its revenue and profit increased hundreds of times!

It is noteworthy that LLC "Tank-Yard" received at the mercy of all the cargo transportation of the holding, without owning a single specialized wagon. Whereas specialized companies that have their own fleet of necessary wagons and a staff of qualified specialists, for some reason, cannot break into this segment of cargo transportation.

Any entrepreneur knows that it is not enough to be able to withdraw their income offshore. The millions earned thanks to a position in a large structure still need to be legalized and given a legal and respectable appearance. And for this purpose, the above-mentioned companies, which are still owned by the Deputy Minister, may well fit. With their participation, according to financial reports, tens and hundreds of incoming and outgoing transactions were carried out over the past 5 years for amounts significantly exceeding 1 billion rubles. They were mainly associated with the purchase of bills, assignments of claims, insurance payments, that is, such transactions that cannot be verified or, more simply, "feel" their authenticity.

One way or another, financial transactions alone with the participation of Kirill Molodtsov personally are revealed in these documents for 700 million rubles. Moreover, in addition to their own firms, Limited Queenford Consulting (Cyprus), SGCC LLC (represented by the already mentioned Ms. Averina), Ruzhkhimmash CJSC, Splav-M CJSC, a representative office of Downtown Development BV, CJSC Siburtrans, CJSC Gazprombank-Leasing and others. After analyzing them, we can conclude that the main purpose of all the numerous and complicated operations could be precisely the withdrawal of funds from controlled companies, including with the aim, as one might assume, of creating the appearance of the legality of obtaining the declared income of happy spouses.

Until recently, Matrix Overseas Trading Inc. was the main source of "monetization" of the chair occupied. It would, of course, be a mistake to assume that with its closure the “parallel” business of an official-entrepreneur will come to an end. There are many other schemes that lawyers can develop to replace it. As a result, any new firm Matrix-2 will just as well contribute to the achievement end result. As they say, time is money, and it is foolish to miss out on opportunities to make super-profits in tax-free offshore jurisdictions.

But schemes are schemes, and in what specific way can the Deputy Minister of Energy turn the chair he occupies into a tool for replenishing his offshore accounts? Where in the government corridors floats the same " gold fish”, catching which you can make any wishes?

Kazakh transit

Since Soviet times, routes have been established for the transit of Central Asian oil and gas through pipes laid through Russia. And now, when, for example, Kazakhstan needs to send oil to Europe, it must turn to Russian partners. He appeals: I want, they say, to send millions of tons of oil to the ports in Ust-Luga and Novorossiysk, so that from there they go by tankers to European markets.

And everything would be simple if the Transneft pipeline were private. But since many people claim access to the state pipeline Russian companies, as well as our Central Asian partners, then the distribution of volumes and directions of transit is handled by Russian Ministry energy. It is from here that Transneft receives various instructions every quarter, including where to send the same Kazakh transit oil.

And who do you think is responsible for compiling quarterly schedules for the transit of Kazakh oil across Russian territory? That's right: our good friend - Deputy Minister of Energy of Russia Kirill Molodtsov. And for some reason, from time to time in his schedules, instead of directions to Ust-Luga and Novorossiysk, Kazakh oil is sent along directions not required by the Kazakh side to ... Hungary and Slovakia. To factories belonging to the MOL group of companies. In 2015, the practice of manipulating the transit schedule of Kazakh oil became the norm for the Deputy Minister.

Kazakhs have been living side by side with Russians for so long that I wouldn’t be surprised if among themselves they scold Russian officials not in Kazakh unprinted, but in pure Russian ... But in their letters to the Russian Ministry of Energy, they quite politely explain that the directions of supply allocated to them are economically unprofitable , and therefore are asked to take into account their wishes for the transit of their own oil. But these statements in Moscow did not seem to be heard.

As a result, Kazakhstan, protecting its own economic interests, takes a reciprocal step - it reduces the volume of oil supplied for transit through Russia by 4.0 million tons, as a result of which the state-owned Transneft loses 7 (seven) billion rubles in tariff revenue in 2015 alone. ! The company loses profits, the state loses taxes and dividends. And this is not to mention big politics, which turns into squabbles in the EurAsEC.

So thanks to whom does Kazakh oil and Kazakhstan turn towards China, and what is the monetization of the project here? - you ask. And that, for a reason incomprehensible to an outside observer, mandatory participants meetings with Kazakhstan on oil transit issues, along with officials from the Russian Ministry of Energy, are representatives of the Lukoil concern. The fact is that the only company that has an agreement for the supply of oil with the MOL group, the owner of oil refineries in Hungary and Slovakia, is Concept Oil (Singapore). And the beneficiaries of the latter are Valery Subbotin, Vice President of PJSC Lukoil, and, you will never guess, our brave Deputy Minister Kirill Molodtsov.

As a result, it turns out that an official who, on duty, is obliged to protect the interests of the state, by his actions, on the contrary, causes direct damage in the form of a violation of agreements with partners and taxes not received by the state.

The well-known economist, chief researcher at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikita Krichevsky, characterizing the activities of some of our, so to speak, servants of the people, in his article “Carte blanche. The pipe is the head of everything? noted that pride and corruption have long been accustomed to go over the heads. For “top officials who have temporarily privatized state functions”, “in bureaucratic intrigues, all means are good. And the fact that the population, consumers and the same state will suffer as a result is not so important, ”the professor stated bitterly.

Belarusian "tricks"

The loss of billions of rubles from the reduction in the transit of Kazakh oil, not to mention the conflict with the neighboring friendly republic, is not the only result of the "creative" activity of Kirill Molodtsov as Deputy Minister of Energy of Russia. The “Belarusian project” turned out to be just as impressively effective.

Receiving duty-free Russian oil for our own needs, our partner in the Union State has long ago established a “gray” export of oil products produced from it. In order not to particularly irritate Russian benefactors, the names and codes are usually changed for goods: gasoline is called, for example, a solvent or acetone, and then it is exported duty-free from Belarus to other countries. In the case of such a “placement” of oil products, a number of Belarusian companies were noticed that acted with the participation of the top management of the same Lukoil.

The government has long instructed the Russian Ministry of Energy to develop an effective mechanism that would prevent the possibility of export duty evasion in the export of petroleum products smuggled in Belarus from Russian crude oil. But who do you think is responsible for this responsible work in the Russian Ministry of Energy? Of course, Deputy Minister Kirill Molodtsov. As a result of his "hard work", the decision on the classification of oil products subject to mandatory customs duties is being postponed from month to month.

Apparently, this is a very difficult decision. Perhaps it is really difficult to accept it. But the duty-free export of oil products under fictitious names continues successfully, which, according to experts, causes serious damage to the Russian budget - it can be estimated at more than two billion dollars. And one can only guess what super-profits all this turns into for our "slow" official-entrepreneur ...

And if such “effective” Lukoil operations are covered up even at the level of interstate relations, then why be surprised that at home the company does not stand on ceremony with any state interests there.

As, for example, an audit of Bashneft recently found out, while the Investigative Committee is actively returned the company to state ownership, embezzlement at Bashneft enterprises took on the scale of a natural disaster. And the Lukoil companies allegedly play an active role in this, which first bought oil from the Bashkir company, and then sold it for processing. The difference traditionally went offshore.

The audit reports mention that large-scale violations were revealed in the branches of Bashneft. For example, “not reflected in the accounting of the receipt or shipment of petroleum products”, underestimation of the real volumes of production output “by hiding residues in tanks and pipes”, manipulation with “commodity losses” and data on shipment by rail. There were even cases known from the Belarusian practice of Lukoil, when gasoline and diesel fuel in the reports again changed their names and codes, again “turning” into crude oil.

Is it any wonder that Lukoil is so interested in buying Bashneft. Whoever covered him at the level of the ministry and government, but any other buyer can demand compensation for losses and repayment of debts. And there, you look, and criminal cases will catch up. Maybe even some vice presidents of companies and deputy ministers. The FSB detained the Deputy Minister of Culture Grigory Pirumov on suspicion of his unduly interest to the restoration of the Grand Kremlin Palace, the Palace of Facets and the Hermitage. And here I would like to hear how Kirill Molodtsov would begin to explain to the FSB investigators his actions in favor of Lukoil.

Such actions, of course, do not go unnoticed by industry experts. Referring to the figure of the Deputy Minister and one of his, so to speak, “demarches”, which we talked about, Nikita Krichevsky, already mentioned by us, put it as follows: “Molodtsov’s demarche is dictated by the flawed logic of an undercover struggle between the largest state-owned companies, on the one hand, and top officials, temporarily privatized state functions, on the other.

In what, in what, and in the “monetization” of his position, Molodtsov is really well done. He also succeeded in shaping the image of a respectable government official. Looking at the list of his awards, one begins to suspect that the commemorative medal “XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games 2014 in Sochi” or the medal “For the Return of Crimea” were issued in the government to everyone and indiscriminately. But these awards do not say a word about how their owners succeeded in converting public service into big money.

The oil and gas industry brings in more than 60 percent of the Russian budget revenues, and it is obvious that people who do not so much manage the industry as exploit it for personal purposes cause enormous damage to the country. But more on that in the next story.

In order to put insolent young majors, who openly mocked the policemen, in their place, General Anatoly Yakunin, the head of the head office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Moscow, had to join in, demanding severe punishment for them. To calm down his presumptuous father, senior vice-president of Lukoil Azat Shamsuarov, who threatened law enforcement officers with various punishments, it took the intervention of the official representative of the Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, who warned that such "those who wanted to threaten" would leave a wet puddle.

When will there finally be people in the Ministry of Energy and the government of the country who have enough political will to put the oil company itself and its presumptuous lobbyists in their place?