Having proved the fault of Transneft in the forced downtime of the Druzhba pipeline, Igor Sechin’s employees will be able to blame the pollution on Nikolai Tokarev.
The other day, Rosneft filed a lawsuit against Transneft for $160 million due to the forced suspension of pumping through the Druzhba oil pipeline. According to the state corporation, Transneft is to blame for the downtime, which was associated with the ingress of organochlorines into the pipeline in 2019. Because of what Rosneft suffered losses.
How fair the claim is to be decided by the court, however, if the company led by Igor Sechin manages to prove the case, then in fact Transneft will be considered guilty of the international scandal when the oil pipeline was idle
The correspondent of The Moscow Post tried to figure out the oil “cream”.
background
Recall that during the investigation of the causes of the incident, it was found that the failure occurred at a node in the Samara region, owned by Nefteperevalka LLC.
This node, according to experts, is less controlled by Transneft specialists (without taking samples daily) due to its low level of influence on the entire system and the atypical pollution.
As a result, the investigators came to the conclusion that the leaders of Nefteperevalka LLC and related companies stole oil delivered at the hub, and in order to hide the theft, they bought oil with a high content of organochlorines on the market, Kommersant reported. Ultimately, Transneft is responsible.
Khudaynats at the behest of Sechin?
At the same time, the current founder of Neftepervalka, Sergei Salunov, used to manage the Petroneft-Aktiv enterprise of Roman Trushev and Roman Ruzhechko. Now both are not its founders, both are defendants in a criminal case on pollution in the oil pipeline.
As reported by Rosbalt (recognized as a foreign agent), the drain unit built by Trushev was engaged in receiving oil from various companies and, in particular, NNK, an oil company owned by the former head of Rosneft, Eduard Khudainatov.
This is indicated by the fact that NNK Khudainatov provided its products to another office of Trushev (he was its founder) and Ruzhechko (he was its head) – Samaratransneft-Terminal – information about this was published on the official website of the Prospektstroy company (archived link).
This company provided coating services for tankers. Now, apparently, it is no longer functioning.
Moreover, as the owner of Nefteperevalka, Roman Ruzhechko, told RBC at one time, “A large excess of the concentration of organochlorine was found in the oil that was in the tanks and pipelines of Transneft-Prikamye, which owns two oil pipelines: Almetyevsk – Kuibyshev-1″ and ” Almetievsk – Kuibyshev-2″. Through them, oil from Tatarstan and Bashkiria enters Lopatino. RBC concluded that we are talking about Bashneft, which, recall, is part of Rosneft.
If so, then the logic of the Rosneft leadership is understandable. And we must at all costs defend ourselves against accusations of oil pollution. And after all, if the court recognizes that the downtime was the fault of Transneft headed by Nikolai Tokarev, then it will be possible to then “poking a finger” at the document to assert that the latter is to blame, despite the fact that there is no court decision on Transneft’s guilt. In this case, all the “bumps” will fly to Mr. Tokarev.
Strained relationship
It should be noted that Tokarev and Sechin have developed “hostile relations,” Kommersant wrote, emphasizing that Mr. Sechin constantly complains to Putin about the management of Transneft.
By the way, there was talk that, allegedly, Ruzhechko’s protégé could be Igor Sechin’s wife Marina Sechina.
It was Sechin who lobbied for the so-called “market liberalization” – together with the head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service Igor Artemiev, and at the same time, as they say, knocked out the stakes of Transneft: he proposed to consolidate the Unified Oil and Oil Products Supply System, which would include all oil companies. In other words, to put the entire oil industry under its own control.
It is believed that it was thanks to the efforts of Artemyev and Sechin that an independent point for delivering oil to the main oil pipelines, Samara, appeared. As a result, the country solved the problem of chlorinated oil. Who then is to blame for what happened?
Rosneft constantly dislikes something from Transneft. At the end of 2016, Rosneft filed a lawsuit against Transneft regarding the conclusion of an agreement for the transportation of oil in 2017, then changed its mind and canceled it. This was reported by Vedomosti.
The duel is not equal
They say that Sechin’s lobbying resources are stronger than those of Tokarev. Especially after the story about the kickbacks from contractors, when at the end of last year the former general director of Transneft Upper Volga (a Transneft structure) Yury Levin was detained.
One of the main contractors for the structure he headed was Transneft-Druzhba, which is operating a section of the Druzhba oil pipeline. No one denies that Levin may be guilty of what he is accused of. But it is strange that against the backdrop of the conflict between Sechin and Tokarev, law enforcement officers are getting closer and closer to the head of Transneft.
Benefit from all sides
Moreover, back in the summer of last year, we assumed that the whole situation could be beneficial to Sechin from the other end. He might have liked Samaratransneft-Terminal. Now that she, that Nefteperevalka, like many other assets associated with these firms, are in the stage of bankruptcy.
Having redeemed the companies for a not very high price later, it will be possible to make them part of Rosneft, or give a chance to your friend Khudainatov to acquire this asset. Nothing stands still and oil flows.
Source: The Moscow Post