Transneft (Russian:Транснефть) is astate-controlled oil pipeline company headquartered in Moscow, Russia. It is the world's largest oil pipeline company. As of 2020[update], it operated over 70,000 kilometres (43,000 mi) of trunk pipelines and transported about 80% of oil and 30% of oil products produced in Russia.[3][4][needs update]
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The Government of the Russian Federation established Transneft on 14 August 1993, and the Moscow Registration Chamber registered it on 26 August 1993.[4]
In 2008,Transnefteproduct, a company transporting refined oil products, was merged into Transneft.[12][13]
In 2018, Transneft took over 31% of shares which belonged to the Russian Federation inCaspian Pipeline Consortium.[2] In 2021, the company's revenue amounted to 998 billion rubles.[14]
Sanctioned by the United Kingdom from 12 September 2014 in relation to Russia's activities inCrimea.[15]
On 24 February 2022, in response to Russia's military operations inUkraine, several countries moved to impose moreeconomic sanctions in addition to those in response to the2021–2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis. US PresidentJoe Biden announced sanctions against several Russian individuals, companies, and financial institutions, including Transneft.[16][17] In March 2022, as a result of the 2022Russian invasion of Ukraine theEU imposed sanctions on Transneft.[18]
Documents submitted by Transneft to theRussian Audit Chamber in 2008 were found at the disposal ofAlexei Navalny, a minority shareholder of Transneft. The papers, published on 16 November 2010, contain information regarding multiple economic crimes committed by Transeft employees, includingSemyon Vainshtok, its daughter structures, and contractors in the construction of theEastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean oil pipeline. The documents describe how Transneft executives set 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 MinisterVladimir Putin called for an investigation into the allegations. The company's management confirmed all facts related to theft and fraud. The officials endorsed the reports that recorded the breaches.[19][20]
Transneft has been repeatedly criticized for the lack of transparency regarding its expenditures on charity.[21] From 2007 to 2011, the company did not disclose information on recipients of these funds.[22] In 2011, Transneft officially published information about its charity expenditures. It turned out that from January 2011, the company spent 3.21 billion rubles on charity. 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 wasVladimir Kozhin, a former head of theDirectorate of the President of the Russian Federation).[23]
^ThroughSemyon Vainshtok's Israeli based real estate companyIsrael Financial Levers Ltd., Vainshtok, who is a very close associate ofVladimir Putin, owns a 35% stake in theLipstick Building in 2011.[5][6]Bernie Madoff's brokerage firm's offices were on the 19th floor of the Lipstick Building.
^ForSemyon Vainshtok (Russian:Семен Михайлович Вайншток born 5 October, 1947,Climăuți, Dondușeni District, Moldavian SSR),Weinstock is another spelling of his surname. Through his shell companies inBahamas,Cyprus, andSwitzerland, he has investments withAker Solutions, the largest Norwegian oil company, which was formerly known asAker Kværner.[7] In the late 1990s, Vainshtok ensured the funding of Baltic Pipeline System OJSC for the building of BTS-1 and in October 1999, he appointedAlexei Miller the general director ofBaltic Pipeline System.[5] In November 2007, he was closely associated with the Dutch oil firmVitol through its joint venture Petrovit.[8] 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.[8] 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 byAlexei Navalny of stealing $2 billion viamoney 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 theEastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline 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.[7][9][10] Although Vainshtok had direct access to Putin and was well liked by Putin,Gennady Timchenko ofGunvor did not like Transneft and Vainshtok and went toIgor Sechin ofRosneft who allowed the new president of TransneftNikolai Tokarev to audit Transneft in late 2007 and found discrepancies involving Vainshtok during the construction of ESPO pipeline.[11] On April 17, 2008, he stepped down fromOlimpstroy (Russian:Олимпстрой) which was the Russian state owned corporation that was developing the resort atSochi for the2014 Winter Olympics that Vainshtok had headed from September 11, 2007, and moved to London, where he resided until 2010, when he moved to Israel.[5]
^Гавшина, Оксана (Gavshina, Oksana); Резник, Ирина (Reznik, Irina) (17 November 2010)."Миллиарды из трубы" [Billions from the pipe].Vedomosti (in Russian). Archived fromthe original on 21 November 2010. Retrieved19 March 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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