SOCAR and Sberbank JV repurchased 80% of shares of the Antipinsky Oil Refinery

SOCAR and Sberbank JV - the Russian company SOKAR ENERGORESURS bought 80% of the shares of Antipinsky Oil Refinery, thus gaining control over this plant. The plant is able to process 9 million tons a year, as well as deposits in the Orenburg region that are part of the assets of the Antipinsky Oil Refinery, informed source in SOCAR told ASTNA. The amount of the transaction has not yet been disclosed.

SOCAR will provide institutional expertise and operational management of facilities, but will clarify its investment program after an audit of assets within established corporate procedures and evaluating operating activities.

The joint venture is interested in the refinery resuming uninterrupted operation, continuing to supply oil products to the domestic market of the Russian Federation and for export, and ensuring stable tax revenues to the federal and regional budgets.

SOCAR deputy vice-president Vitaly Beglyarbekov told ASTNA that Antipinsky Oil Refinery is an attractive enterprise because it has developed an "interesting distribution scheme for oil products and there are a significant number of buyers for its products." The refinery produces gasoline grades AI-95, AI-92 and AI-80 of the Euro-5 quality standard, diesel fuel, petroleum coke, liquefied petroleum gas.

It is also positive that the joint venture "SOKAR ENERGORESURS" got mining assets - Mogutovskoye, parts of the Gremyachevsky and Vorontsovsky oil fields in the Orenburg region. Oil reserves are 45.5 million tons in categories C1 + C2, industrial production did not start, by 2024-2025 it was planned to produce 4 million tons per year.

It should be noted that at the very end of May, Sberbank and SOCAR created a trading JV - Sokar Energoresurs LLC, in which the share of Socar Russia Investments Ltd registered in Cyprus is 60%, the rest belongs to the structure of Sberbank - SBC Komplekt LLC.

The general director of the joint venture is Farid Jafarov, who heads the main Russian structure of SOCAR, a trader of Socar Rus LLC. The authorized capital of the joint venture is 10 thousand rubles.

In order to quickly commission the refinery shut down in April 2018, the joint venture wants to immediately start the customer-supplied scheme, that is, the owner of the oil will be able to supply it to the refinery, pay the plant for processing services, and then receive and sells the oil products itself. Among the suppliers of such oil are LUKOIL and Surgutneftegaz.

ANTIPA refinery debt

The refinery"s debts may exceed $ 5 billion, and the head of SOCAR, Rovnag Abdullayev, told reporters on May 30 that in the event of a refinery deal, the Azerbaijani side does not plan to take on the plant"s debt obligations. On 4 June Sberbank of Russia expressed concern that "the debt load of the plant is substantially larger than we had expected while building relationships with the client."

The official debt of the Antipinsky Oil Refinery to Sberbank is about $ 3 billion. The lenders of the Antipinsky Oil Refinery, in addition to Sberbank, are Absolut Bank, which also announced its intention to file for bankruptcy at the oil refinery, as well as Promsvyazbank, Intercombank, ICD and Credit Europe Bank.

At the end of April, the assets of the Antipinsky Oil Refinery for $ 225 million were frozen in accordance with the decision of the Commercial Court of the High Court of London. The decision was made based on a VTB Commodities Trading claim. The trader also sent claims demanding the arrest of funds and assets of the company to the Arbitration Court of the Murmansk region, to the Arbitration Court of Moscow.

"It turned out that a number of guarantees of the plant (in particular, for $ 1 billion) with Sberbank did not agree in violation of credit documentation. Part of the funds received from the bank were spent not only to cover losses from the tax maneuver, but also to maintain the standard of living of the group"s founder A new stream, "Dmitry Mazurov," - wrote on Tuesday a number of Russian media.

Sberbank also became aware of off-balance sheet obligations of the plant, which were not reflected in the statements of the plant. How JV "SOCAR ENERGORESURS" is going to clean this cart of financial problems is not yet clear.