The gas monopoly Gazprom unexpectedly halted the purchase of pipes for Nord Stream 2 and cancelled existing contracts with metallurgists for tens of billions of rubles. This action does not appear to be related to politics at all: Gazprom believed that the prices for large-diameter pipes were too high. Simultaneously, one of the suppliers is selling pipes to corporations at a significant discount. This could possibly be explained by market laws. However, this story has several circumstances that make it suspicious.
Once – and there is no contract
Last spring, Gazprom announced the purchase of pipes for Nord Stream 2. This involves half a million tons of products for the onshore part of the export pipeline with a total length of 876 kilometers. Gazprom signed the main contracts with established enterprises that had previously supplied pipes for the construction of gas pipelines: OMK, ChTPZ, Severstal, and others. The total amount of orders is almost 60 billion rubles, and everything was going well up to a certain point. However, in December, the monopoly unexpectedly ceased purchases and terminated contracts for pipe supply (even though most of the products had already been delivered). The state corporation found that the prices for pipes were too high, which led to the termination of relations with their suppliers. This raises questions: did Gazprom not know this before? Do the high-ranking and highly paid managers of the state corporation not follow the market? Is there really not enough analysts on the staff of the monopoly who can study the market situation and calculate the cost of pipes?
Judging by the data of Vedomosti, Gazprom’s eyes were opened by a certain Zagorsk Pipe Plantowned by a businessman Denis Safin and Partner of Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners Nikolai Egorov. Six months ago, this plant began supplying pipes to Gazprom for the first time. The company would like to applaud: it is only 2 years old, and in this short period of time it has become one of the partners of one of the largest Russian corporations, and now it has every chance of becoming its main counterparty. An unprecedented success story. As for prices, this plant offered to supply pipes to Gazprom at a 13-15% discount. From this, the state-owned company concluded that other suppliers were overpricing and decided to stop cooperating with them. In general, this happens in life: today an enterprise works with one supplier, tomorrow it will find another one that will offer more favorable conditions. But in this particular case, everything looks very strange.
Sit on the pipe
The pipe market in Russia is rather narrow. This is normal, as not everyone is able to produce steel pipes with a diameter of one and a half meters. Their prices are determined based on the cost of steel, coal, and are tied to dollar prices on world exchanges. The devaluation played its role, and pipes in rubles went up very much – about one and a half times. So everything seems to be in order. However, now the sources in Gazprom have decided to “educate” the pipe makers to lower prices, which is a little surprising. In fact, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Federal Antimonopoly Service should “educate” metallurgists, as required by law. That is, “Gazprom” would have to complain to the government and anti-monopolists about inflated prices, they would check the reasonableness of prices and make their verdict. Of course, large companies do not always obey the FAS, and that is why Gazprom could take matters into its own hands. However, there is a feeling that the regulators could check and find out that the pipe makers are behaving according to the laws of the market. This also happens.
And, most importantly, Gazprom now has a new supplier who has promised to provide inexpensive products. Moreover, the company was not even embarrassed that the CEO and co-owner of the Zagorsk Pipe Plant Denis Safin I was recently placed under house arrest. The investigation found that he illegally used state subsidies for 133 million rubles. A good supplier, with a crystal reputation, isn't it? But this also happens: the investigation is mistaken, or someone misleads them. Apparently, this bright idea came to the head of Gazprom, Alexei Miller. Journalists found out that last spring he personally met with Denis Safin. And the criminal case ended in November: the businessman was released from custody, however, he still had to return 133 million. But given the looming multibillion-dollar orders – mere trifles. And this dubious episode is not the only one in the history of the Zagorsk Pipe Plant.
Who is the loan for?
This spring, Denis Safin said that the Zagorsk Pipe Plant had a new shareholder: Nikolai Egorov, partner at the Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners law firm. He is known not only as a lawyer, but also as a classmate of the president. And then the Kommersant newspaper found out that the enterprise would become a major supplier of Gazprom. The journalists asked their sources in the industry if Nikolai Yegorov helped the plant by chance to win the corporation’s tenders. Nobody knows about it. But the publication was told that this gentleman often advises clients of Sberbank. These include … Zagorsk Pipe Plant, which owes the state bank 5 billion rubles. And then it became known that Sberbank issued a billion rubles to the enterprise, and in addition, it restructured the old loan, postponing the start of payments to 2018. It is quite possible to assume that next year the plant will become much richer, because it will receive money from Gazprom.
Whether Nikolai Yegorov participated in the negotiations, of course, is not known for certain. But remember that he recently became a defendant in the so-called “Paradise Dossier”. His name is in the documents of the Appleby company, which specializes in offshore companies, that came to journalists. And it mentions a deal two years ago, when a lawyer became a co-owner of the largest private oil refinery – Antipinsky Oil Refinery. Since all the shares of the plant were pledged to Sberbank, it was impossible to make a deal without its approval. But Egorov managed to agree. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that in the story of the Zagorsk plant, it could not have been done without his help. No wonder Nikolai Yegorov is called one of the most influential lawyers in the country. And if our assumption is correct, let’s pay attention to 2 facts: almost simultaneously it became known about the restructuring and that Egorov became a shareholder of the metallurgical plant.
Junk on the stream
But the most striking episode occurred 7 years ago, when an oil pipeline was being built to the port of Ust-Luga. Transneft’s contractor, Industrial Technologies, undertook to supply large-diameter pipes for construction. But instead of purchasing products from metallurgists, resourceful businessmen began to buy used pipes and restore them. That is, to clean from rust, old insulation, remove defects, and so on. After that, fake markings were glued to the pipes and sent to the customer. So, the Moscow region was engaged in the restoration “Insulation Pipe Plant”. Now he is part of the same group with the Zagorsk Pipe Plant, and the father of the shareholder of the group, Galyalkhak Safin, works as the president of both enterprises. That story for the Transneft contractor ended in criminal terms. But they did not touch the restorers, although the assumption does not go out of their heads that they were aware of where these pipes were going.
And now a group with such a history is becoming the main supplier of pipes for the main export project of Gazprom, which is being watched with great attention in Europe. They also know how to read publications in the Russian media and court decisions. And, logically, Gazprom should choose such counterparties so that the EU does not even have a shadow of doubt about the reliability of the pipeline, whose fate is already constantly hanging in the balance. But the state corporation apparently has other considerations.
