SOCAR becomes minority shareholder of Russia’s Antipinsky Oil Refinery

By Azernews

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) received a minority share of 9.6 percent in the Antipinsky Oil Refinery.

SOCAR announced on October 31 that it had completed all necessary procedures to become a minority participant in Socar Energoresurs LLC, which owns 80 percent of the Antipinsky Oil Refinery’s shares. The company plans to help the plant with management and does not assume the risk of obligations.

The effective share of SOCAR in the plant amounted to 9.6 percent, which follows from extracts from the Cyprus registry, where the plant shareholders are registered. SOCAR RUS LLC, which is SOCAR's subsidiary in Moscow, received 20 percent in Cyprus SOCAR Russia Investments, which in turn owns 60 percent in a joint venture with Sberbank SOCAR Energoresurs. This joint venture became the owner of 80 percent of the Antipinsky refinery in June 2019.

Russia’s Sberbank acquired 80 percent of the shares of the Antipinsky Oil Refinery from the New Stream group for debts in May 2019. Later, the joint venture of Sberbank and a group of investors - SOCAR Energoresurs, acquired an 80 percent stake in Antipinsky Oil Refinery from the Cyprus Vikay Industrial Limited. However, this transaction was not reflected in the register. Antipinsky Oil Refinery called SOCAR Energoresurs as a contractor who will load the plant with oil. At the same time, Sberbank indicated SOCAR Energoresurs as a project operator.

SOCAR Energoresurs’ founders in May were Sberbank's SBK Komplekt LLC (40 percent) and SOCAR Russia Investments (60 percent). In early July, Energoresource RT Limited from Cyprus, which is wholly owned by the Cyprus Nominees Limited, became the sole owner of SOCAR Energoresurs.

Antipinsky Oil Refinery with a capacity of nine million tons produces Euro-5, AI-92 and AI-80 gasoline of Euro-5 quality standard, diesel fuel, petroleum coke, and liquefied petroleum gas.

In 2018, the refinery reduced oil refining to 6.4 million tons from 7.3 million tons in 2017. In the first half of 2019, processing decreased to 1.77 million tons from 3.48 million tons for the same period last year. The debt of the refinery is $5 billion, of which about $3 billion to Sberbank, according to the latest data.

Established in 1992, SOCAR aims at managing Azerbaijan's oil resources on the basis of single state policy, improving the management structure of the oil industry and ensuring the development of fuel and energy complex.

SOCAR is one of the world's 50 largest oil companies. Its mission is to ensure the energy security of the country.

In 2018, the revenues of SOCAR from operations amounted to 6.6 billion manats ($3.89 billion, 23.1 percent up) in Azerbaijan, 4.9 billion manats ($2.89 billion, 0.9 percent up) in Turkey, 2.3 billion manats ($1.35 billion, 77.6 percent up) in the United Arab Emirates, 1.1 billion manats ($647 million, 5.2 percent down) in Georgia, and 1.6 billion manats ($941 million, 44.5 percent up) in other countries.