Joint Stock Company Transneft (
Russian: Транснефть) is a
state-controlled pipeline transport company headquartered in Moscow, Russia. It is the largest oil pipeline company in the world. The company is operating over 70,000 kilometres (43,000 mi) of trunk pipelines and transports about 80% of oil and 30% of oil products produced in Russia.[5][6][full citation needed]
History
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adding to it. (May 2020)
Transneft was established by the Government of the Russian Federation on 14 August 1993 and it was registered by the Moscow Registration Chamber on 26 August 1993.[6]
In 2008,
Transnefteproduct, a company transporting refined oil products, was merged into Transneft.[14][15]
In 2018, Transneft took over 31% of shares which belonged to the Russian Federation in
Caspian Pipeline Consortium.[4] In 2021, the company's revenue amounted to 998 billion rubles.[16]
Sanctions
Sanctioned by the United Kingdom from 12 September 2014 in relation to Russia's activities in Crimea.[17]
On February 24, 2022, in response to Russia's military operations in
Ukraine, several countries moved to impose more
economic sanctions in addition to those in response to the
2021-2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis. US President
Joe Biden announced sanctions against several Russian individuals, companies, and financial institutions, including Transneft.[18][19] In March 2022, as a result of the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine the
EU imposed sanctions on Transneft.[20]
Operations
This section needs expansion. You can help by
adding to it. (May 2020)
As of 2020[update], Transneft operated over 70,000 kilometres (43,000 mi) of trunk pipelines and transported approximately 80% of oil and 30% of oil products produced in Russia.[5][needs update]
Accusations
Documents submitted by Transneft to the
Russian Audit Chamber in 2008 were found at the disposal of
Alexey Navalny, a minority shareholder of Transneft. The papers, published on 16 November 2010, contain information regarding multiple economic crimes committed by Transeft employees including
Semyon Vainshtok, its daughter structures and contractors in the construction of the
Eastern Siberia – Pacific Ocean oil pipeline. The documents described Transneft executives' setting up a series of shell companies to pose as contractors for Transneft's pipeline project. Navalny posted an audit indicating that the contracting fraud had cost Transneft US$4 billion. Both Transneft and the government auditing office, whose documents Navalny said he leaked on his site, denied the corruption claim. Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin called for an investigation into the allegations. All facts of theft and fraud were confirmed by the company management. The reports that recorded the breaches were endorsed by the officials.[21][22]
Transneft has been repeatedly criticized for the lack of transparency regarding its expenditures on charity.[23] From 2007 to 2011, the company did not disclose information on recipients of these funds.[24] In 2011, Transneft officially published information about its charity expenditures. It turned out that from January to 2011, the company spent on charity 3,21 billion rubles. However, only 52 million rubles were used to support several charity institutions, and 2,55 billion rubles were transferred to the Konstantinovsky charity foundation (its chair was
Vladimir Kozhin, a former head the
Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation).[25]
^Through
Semyon Vainshtok's Israeli based real estate company Israel Financial Levers Ltd., Vainshtok, who is a very close associate of
Vladimir Putin, owns a 35% stake in the
Lipstick Building in 2011.[7][8]Bernie Madoff's brokerage firm's offices were on the 19th floor of the Lipstick Building.
^For
Semyon Vainshtok (
Russian: Семен Михайлович Вайншток born October 5, 1947,
Climăuți,
Dondușeni District,
Moldavian SSR), Weinstock is another spelling of his surname. Through his shell companies in
Bahamas,
Cyprus, and
Switzerland, he has investments with
Aker Solutions, the largest
Norwegian oil company which was formerly known as Aker Kværner.[9] In the late 1990s, Vainshtok ensured the funding of Baltic Pipeline System OJSC for the building of BTS-1 and in October 1999, he appointed
Alexei Miller the general director of
Baltic Pipeline System.[7] In November 2007, he was closely associated with the
Dutch oil firm
Vitol through its joint venture Petrovit.[10] Of the global oil traders in 2006,
Glencore led with $116.5 billion, then Vitol had $113.9 billion and third was Gunvor with $30 billion.[10] In Russia in 2008, he and Yuri Lisin (
Russian: Юрий Лисин), the former president and first vice president of Transneft respectively, along with Vainshtok's son in law Boris Lokshin (
Russian: Борис Локшин) were accused by
Alexei Navalny of stealing $2 billion via
money laundering from Transneft through 15 billion rubles in contributions to charities from 2005-2008 and a 31.6 billion rubles scheme for the construction of the
Eastern Siberian-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline (
Russian: Восточная Сибирь — Тихий океан (ВСТО)) with VNIIST OJSC (
Russian: ОАО «ВНИИСТ»), Giprotruboprovod OJSC (
Russian: ОАО «Гипротрубопровод»), and Krasnodarstroytransgaz (
Russian: «Краснодарстройтрансгаз») which is a shell company that received from Transneft 30 billion rubles of equipment and materials through SDM-Leasing LLC (
Russian: ООО «СДМ-Лизинг») with an additional advance of 7 billion rubles.[9][11][12] Although Vainshtok had direct access to Putin and was well liked by Putin,
Gennady Timchenko of
Gunvor did not like Transneft and Vainshtok and went to
Igor Sechin of
Rosneft who allowed the new president of Transneft
Nikolai Tokarev to audit Transneft in late 2007 and found discrepancies involving Vainshtok during the construction of ESPO pipeline.[13] On April 17, 2008, he stepped down from
Olimpstroy (
Russian: Олимпстрой) which was the Russian state owned corporation that was developing the resort at
Sochi for the
2014 Winter Olympics that Vainshtok had headed from September 11, 2007, and moved to
London where he resided until 2010 when he moved to
Israel.[7]
^Гавшина, Оксана (Gavshina, Oksana); Резник, Ирина (Reznik, Irina) (17 November 2010).
"Миллиарды из трубы" [Billions from the pipe]. Vedomosti (in Russian). Archived from
the original on 21 November 2010. Retrieved 19 March 2022.{{
cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)
^Шлейнов, Роман (Shleinov, Roman) (11 February 2013).
"Ревизор из "разведочной партии"" [The inspector from the "reconnaissance party"]. Vedomosti (in Russian). Archived from
the original on 11 February 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2022.{{
cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)