Ten years ago, it was difficult to imagine the development of Odessa without a local oil refinery, which formed the city’s budget.
However, after the escape of Sergei Kurchenko, the authorities continue to stubbornly ignore the interests of hundreds of workers, to whom multimillion-dollar debts remain. The refinery itself, according to SKELET-info, is in a state of disrepair and may never be revived.
Passage into the hands of the “family”
The Odessa oil refinery had every chance to develop further, significantly filling the local budget. In 2009-2010 alone, the plant, then owned by the Russian Lukoil, transferred more than 2 billion in taxes to the city. And this was not the limit, because the design capacity of the industrial facility allowed processing up to 2.8 tons of raw materials per year.
However, after Yanukovych came to power, the screws were tightened on the enterprise. This was achieved simply: the operator of the main oil pipelines, Ukrtransnafta, changed the route of supply of raw materials through pipelines, and the operation of the refinery ceased to be profitable.
The parties failed to reach an agreement, so the enterprise stood idle for a couple of years. And this lasted until in 2013, on favorable terms, the refinery was taken over by the “young oligarch” Sergei Kurchenko, who worked in the interests of the ex-president’s “family.”
The transfer of large assets under a similar scheme in favor of the VETEK group at that time occurred systematically.
For example, businessman Alexander Yaroslavsky (Read more about him in the article Alexander Yaroslavsky: three marriages of the Kharkov “king”) was forced at the end of 2012 to sell Kurchenko to FC Metalist along with the entire infrastructure. Before this, significant pressure was put on the club owner, in particular, the Kharkov authorities planned to remove the stadium from his management.
“Benin” trace
The next stage of the “time of troubles” for the plant came after another change of power in the country.
In the spring of 2014, law enforcement officers suspected the use of the plant by the VETEK group in the legalization of shadow income. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, for several years, entrepreneurs imported petroleum products into Ukraine, registered them as transit, but in fact sold them on the domestic market. The total amount of goods sold amounted to UAH 36 billion. Its storage was carried out, among other things, at an oil depot in Odessa.
Later, the Primorsky Court decided to confiscate oil from the Omsk Refinery and transfer it to the state-owned enterprise Ukrtransnaftaprodukt for storage for the purpose of speedy sale. A few days later, armed men of the special battalion “Dnepr-1” seized the plant and began to “help” execute the court decision.
The then governor of the Odessa region, Igor Kolomoisky’s ally, Igor Palitsa, ignored the situation, including the concerns of environmentalists associated with non-compliance with basic safety standards when unloading petroleum products.
This can be explained by the fact that subsequently the confiscated oil had to be reloaded into the tanks of PJSC Odessanefteprodukt Kolomoisky, from whom Ukrtransnaftaprodukt rented the tanks.
The former owner of Privatbank himself, in a published conversation with Kurchenko, recommended that he first deal with the state and then demand his oil.
“Do you have 40 thousand tons of oil lying around there? Tell them to voluntarily transfer it to us. N*** do you need her? … Why didn’t you say before that there is so much unowned oil lying around?” Kolomoisky said ironically.
Most likely, then the closure of the Odessa plant was only to the benefit of the Dnepropetrovsk businessman, because under such circumstances the position of his competing refinery, the Kremenchug refinery, was strengthened.
Is a state-owned enterprise a raider?
In October 2015, Ukrtransnaftaprodukt was headed by Alexander Gorbunov, who is associated with the Factor group of the People’s Deputy from the Popular Front Pashinsky (More details about him in the article: Sergey Pashinsky. Thief, raider, fraudster and people’s deputy) and Tishchenko.
At the same time, the only buyer of the confiscated raw materials was the Ukroylproduct company, which was under the control of these businessmen. The Prosecutor General’s Office even opened a criminal case on the fact of underestimating the cost of raw materials, calculating damage to the state amounting to about a third of a billion hryvnia.
The next change in the state-owned enterprise occurred in August 2016: acting. Evgeniy Maydanyuk, whom many consider the creation of Poroshenko’s people, became director of Ukrtransnaftaprodukt (Read more about him: Petro Poroshenko: biography and the whole truth about the “chocolate king” of Ukraine). He didn’t really manage to work, since a month later Gorbunov won a trial in the case of his illegal dismissal. The absence of an order from the Ministry of Energy on his reinstatement did not prevent him from going to work and performing the duties of the head of the enterprise. This lasted two months, until the Zhitomir Court of Appeal finally dismissed Gorbunov.
A turn in events occurred at the end of January 2016: the Odessa Administrative Court of Appeal confirmed the decision of the local district administrative court and canceled the right of Ukrtransnaftaprodukt to manage the property of the refinery.
“This transfer of the property of the Odessa Oil Refinery to operational management is not provided for by law and is illegal. The labor collective of the Omsk Refinery is also confident that the transfer of the refinery’s property to the operational management of the State Enterprise “Ukrtransnefteprodukt” is a raider takeover involving corruption schemes in which high-ranking state officials and prosecutors are involved,” reported SKELET-info plant press service.
Thus, Themis’ decision may serve as the basis for further investigations to determine whether the use of exported oil complies with the law.
The refinery employees themselves have not received wages for about three years and have no opportunity to take their jobs. At the same time, even recently, through video surveillance cameras, they have recorded cases of raw materials being removed from the territory of the plant in an unknown direction.
It is interesting that the specified raw materials are material evidence in criminal proceedings.
Reboot
Currently, the Odessa oil refinery is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings. The amount of debt to more than 20 creditors, as well as the plant’s workforce, exceeds UAH 250 million.
Two more companies, Cypriot Phonrun Operation Limited and Empson Limited, claim that the plant owes them a debt of 14.5 billion hryvnia.
The court of first instance has already recognized them as creditors of the plant.
The offshore companies themselves are associated with Sergei Kurchenko. However, representatives of Empson Limited say that after the procedure is completed, the company’s management intends to begin restoring the refinery.
The situation is slowed down only by one of the enterprises to whom the plant owes money – a certain Spetstechservice-Yug LLC, which is challenging the right of Cypriot companies to be called creditors in the Economic Court of Appeal. The plaintiff was supported by people’s deputy from the BPP Alexey Goncharenko (Read more about him: Biography and the whole truth about Alexei Goncharenko), allegedly unwilling to return a large-scale object to Yanukovych’s associate.
Representatives of Empson Limited believe that the pro-government people’s deputy is deliberately delaying the case in order to continue its theft.
Alternatively, an intermediate stage could be the transfer of an industrial facility to the balance sheet of the same Ukratransnefteprodukt or another state-owned enterprise.
In turn, representatives of the labor collective are convinced that the bankruptcy of an enterprise can serve as a starting point in restoring the refinery and paying off all debts to them. After all, the enterprise was already under state control and nothing good came of it.
Pavel Viktorov, for SKELET-info
