The occupation authorities have raised gas prices for the population. The market was given to a private company with Gazprom connections

A new gas supplier has entered the occupied territories. It is a private company with classified founders and a meagre authorised capital. Registered in 2023, the supplier had the status of a loss-making enterprise, and now it is bankrupting the gas “state enterprise” of the Luhansk “republic”, Farvater.Skhid reports.

Its first step was to raise gas prices for households, despite the promises of Russian top officials to freeze utility prices in the “special military operation zone”. Traces of the new supplier lead to the offices of Gazprom officials.

For the first time, the name of Chernomorneftegaz Limited Liability Company was mentioned in connection with gas supplies to the occupied territories in April this year at a joint meeting of Russian Energy Ministry official Vadim Pavlov with representatives of the occupation administrations:

“…Chernomorneftegaz LLC has been designated for the centralised management, restoration and development of the gas infrastructure of the DPR, LPR, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions”.

This company should not be confused with the Crimean state-owned enterprise Chornomornaftogaz, which existed before the annexation of the peninsula and was later integrated into its structures by the occupiers. Chernomorneftegaz LLC is a completely new private company.

A regional monopoly “blessed” from above

On the main page of the Chernomorneftegaz website, one can find official documents regarding the company’s activities in the occupied territories. These are the decrees of the heads of the occupation administrations “on determining the regional gasification operator” issued with amazing synchronicity:

13.06.2024 – in the Luhansk region;

17.06.2024 – in the Donetsk region;

18.06.2024 – in the Kherson region;

25.06.2024 – in the Zaporizhzhia region.

For many years, the only supplier of natural gas to the so-called Luhansk “republic” was a “state institution” – the State Unitary Enterprise “Luhanskgaz”.

Residents of the occupied territories have not explained the reasons for the change from a state supplier to a private one. However, the transition of the Luhansk “republic’s” gas market to the new operator was immediately noticeable. Cheromornomorneftegaz marked the first day of its operations… by raising gas prices for the population.

There is reason to believe that the “state-owned” Luhanskgaz will soon cease to exist, transferring its property to a private owner. After all, in April 2024, Cheromornomorneftegaz registered a branch in Luhansk called… Luhanskgaz to operate in the Luhansk region. This branch of a private enterprise with the same name is registered at the address of its “state” namesake, 102 Taras Shevchenko Street.

At the same time, according to the website of Cheromornomorneftegaz, the heads of the newly formed branch of the private Luhanskgaz are Tetiana Bohorodko, Oleksandr Korostyliov, Olena Krovalenko, Natalia Garkava and Yuriy Linnik. All of these individuals held similar positions in the “state-owned” Luhanskgaz a few months ago.

On August 14, Cheromornomorneftegaz filed a lawsuit against the “state-owned” Luhanskgaz for more than half a billion rubles with the Rostov Region Administrative Court.

In case of loss, the “state-owned” Luhanskgaz, with a statutory fund of ₽18 million, is unlikely to continue to exist. To secure the claim, it will transfer all its property to the new supplier, and Luhansk taxpayers will have to pay off debts to the private company for years to come.

Gas businessmen in military uniform

It is impossible to find information about the current founders and ultimate beneficial owners of Chornomorneftegaz in open sources: they are closed to display by the Russian Federal Tax Service. According to the Chekko business information search portal, the reasons for this may be foreign sanctions against an organisation, a company’s location in Crimea, or its involvement in defence contracts.

However, even the incomplete information available allows one to find the company’s former connections. In particular, until early July 2023, the first founder of Chornomorneftegaz was Logistica – Aktivy LLC from Moscow, and from November 2023 to March 2024, it was the Gasification Assistance Fund from St. Petersburg.

The first CEO of Chernomorneftegaz was Nikita Tsarichenko, co-founder and CEO of Logistica – Aktivy LLC. For two years, the main beneficiary of this company was the Joint Stock Company International Business Association Promsyrieimport.

This is a billion-dollar company specialising in the trade of solid, liquid and gas fuels. It is the legal successor of the state-owned company, the Federal Unitary State Enterprise International Business Association Promsyrieimport of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, which was liquidated in 2020. Who owns the private Promsyrieimport is also classified information.

Then, following a long-standing Russian tradition, people in uniform appear in the case. The aforementioned Gasification Assistance Fund also has billions of dollars in assets, but it is loss-making and has significant receivables.

Its head is Vladimir Vladimirovich Gorodnichiy. He is a retired major general and former deputy commander of the Eastern Military District of Russia for logistics. He is still an active participant in “patriotic education” activities in Russian military structures.

After his retirement, Gordnichiy worked for several energy-related companies. He is currently the head of a St. Petersburg company with a foreign name, Nobility. The founder of this company was Moscow-based Neftyanoy Dom LLC. The latter is located at the same address as Gazprom Energosbyt.

Gazprom’s personnel reserve in the Luhansk region

The Gazprom trail of Putin’s “nobility” can be traced not only through the complex system of founders and ultimate beneficiaries.

The new director of Chernomorneftegaz, Valery Borisovich Bratkov, who was appointed in April this year, recently lived in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.

He worked as a deputy director at Gazprom subsidiary Gazprom Transgaz Yugorsk. The Russian media reported on the possible involvement of the company’s management in large-scale fraud involving shell companies. Investigators from the Association for the Reintegration of Crimea also cite interesting facts of abuse from Valery Bratkov’s biography.

Under Bratkov’s leadership, Chernomorneftegaz has taken several significant legal steps.

In June 2024, the company moved its legal address from Moscow to Rostov-on-Don for the convenience of its operations. The new address of Chernomorneftegaz is 40a Kirovsky Avenue, which is next door to Gazprom Gazoraspredelenie Rostov-on-Don.

In June 2024, Chernomorneftegaz opened a representative office in St. Petersburg. The representative office is registered at the same address as the St. Petersburg branch of the Khanty-Mansi Surgutneftegazbank, which is owned by Vladimir Putin’s “business partner”, Russian oligarch Vladimir Bogdanov.