Half a billion dollars from the YaNAO fields were lost in the conflicts of Rosneftegaz. Licenses and budget money are currently being disputed in court
Urengoyremstroydobycha will have to defend its claims again. Important financial proceedings involving a well-known businessman in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the founder of Rosneftegaz Corporation Oleg Sitnikov, have taken a new turn. Cassation has reviewed the decisions of previous instances regarding claims for hundreds of millions of rubles from Urengoyremstroydobycha (URSD) to Rosneftegaz from St. Petersburg.
An interesting inconsistency in the position of the debtor came up in the dispute, which initially denied the work and questioned the signatures supposedly made by the general director, but later, after the sole executive body was changed to the Avtomobilist company, acknowledged the obligations. Also, the creditor’s likely connection with Rosneftegaz and Sitnikov became the main basis for criticizing the claims of the URSD. Moreover, the decision on claims is likely to play a crucial role in the bankruptcy cases of both the company from St. Petersburg and Urengoyremstroydobycha.
The company had previously provided hundreds of jobs in Novy Urengoy, but eventually went into bankruptcy proceedings. Businessmen have attempted to restore the company’s solvency by referring to future income of over 800 million, but the court has not yet assessed this plan. Both parties are now waiting for a new round of proceedings, and Sitnikov continues to express his opinions about pressure on business, specifically mentioning former security officials.
The decisions of the lower courts, which recognized claims for 565 million from Urengoyremstroydobycha LLC (URSD; Novy Urengoy) against Rosneftegaz Corporation LLC (St. Petersburg) as justified, have been overturned by the Arbitration Court of the North-Western District. According to Kontur.Fokus, the ultimate beneficiaries of Rosneftegaz Corporation LLC are the notorious Yamal businessman Oleg Sitnikov (~94.34%) and Maxim Vetyugov (~5.66%). The latter is referred to as the son of the former prosecutor of the YaNAO Nikolai Vetyugov.Oleg Sitnikov
As indicated in the documents, the claims of the company from the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug were related to the work carried out at the fields for which Rosneftegaz Corporation was granted licenses to use the subsoil. The documents mention the Kunovatsky site in the Shuryshkarsky district, the Kharvutinsky site in the Priuralsky and Nadymsky districts, and the Yuzhno-Yaroyakhinsky site in the Purovsky district.
However, not everyone agreed with the demands. The interim manager of Rosneftegaz and the bankrupt LLC Novourengoy Drilling Operations Administration (NUBR; part of the IDS Group holding of Artur Dulgeru and Gadzhi Gadzhiev) particularly opposed them.
So, for example, the manager highlighted doubts about the existence of actual economic legal relations between partners.
“Most of the agreements and actions in the form of KS-2, KS-3 are not signed by the parties or signed using a copy of a signature; during legal proceedings by the representative of the debtor under a power of attorney issued by the general director Evdokimov D.Yu., the fact that the creditor had performed work and that the signature belonged on behalf of Evdokimov was denied. The change in position occurred after the termination of Evdokimov’s powers and the transfer of powers to Avtomobilist JSC, the arbitration specialist pointed out the dubious episodes in the case.
He also mentioned the conclusion of a specialist from Elok Expert Bureau LLC, which stated that “the image of signatures on behalf of Evdokimov was applied to certificates of the cost of work performed and costs by a technical method”, and the presence of differences in the documents.
Another important point of criticism of the half-billion claim was the probable connections between the companies.
“The interim manager points out that a company affiliated with Rosneftegaz-Kharp is also connected to the debtor, as they are controlled by the same person – Oleg Afanasevich Sitnikov. In support of the arguments about the actual affiliation, the manager refers to the facts of work performed in the presence of unsigned work contracts, inaction for a long period to apply for debt collection with the unsatisfactory position of the creditor himself,” comes from the documents.
Opponents of URSD, SibTekhnoBur (Langepas; Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug), in turn, mentioned that they carried out work in neighboring areas with the site of disputed operations, and at the same time they had no data on the work of Urengoyremstroydobycha.
As a result, the cassation acknowledged the criticism as justified and sent the dispute for a new consideration to the court of first instance. It should be noted that the requirements of the URSD are fundamental in the bankruptcy case of Rosneftegaz Corporation – earlier, in particular, with reference to them, bankruptcy proceedings were canceled in the company.
An important dispute may become significant for various state bodies of the YNAO. Thus, the administration of the Shuryshkarsky district has already announced the debts of Rosneftegaz for 44.2 million rubles, and the Department of Natural Resource Regulation, Forest Relations and the Development of the Oil and Gas Complex of the YaNAO – claims for 44.2 million rubles. Among the creditors also appear MUP “UGH” (Novy Urengoy) and others.Urengoy field
Disputes and licenses of Rosneftegaz were affected. In particular, interim measures were taken, according to which the corporation is prohibited from taking actions aimed at terminating and alienating the license for geological exploration in relation to the Yuzhno-Yaroyakhinsky block.
Equally noteworthy is the decision on the requirements and in the context of the bankruptcy case of Urengoyremstroydobycha LLC itself. It should be noted, according to the information of Kontur.Focus, at the end of 2021 the company had a balance sheet of 1.2 billion, revenue of 636.7 million, showing a loss of 72.9 million. At the same time, the average number of employees of the organization, according to the Federal Tax Service, in 2020 exceeded 500 people.
At the end of last year, an attempt was made to withdraw Urengoyremstroydobycha from bankruptcy proceedings. In particular, the manager, as follows from the documents, received letters from Upstream Service LLC and Tyumengeologia JSC, from which it follows that Upstream Service offers cooperation in the framework of work to abandon wells at the Urengoyskoye field, and Tyumengeology is interested in attracting production capacities for work related to the overhaul and development of wells.
However, the first instance refused to transfer to external management, and the name of the same Sitnikov surfaced in the dispute. Now this decision, in particular, is being challenged by LLC Achimneftegazservis (Tyumen).
Recall that earlier Pravda UrFO reported in detail about conflicts over assets that are associated with Oleg Sitnikov, as well as about the recognition of a businessman guilty of committing crimes under paragraph “b” of part 2 of article 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in three episodes “Evasion from payment of taxes committed on an especially large scale” and clause “b” of Part 2 of Article 171 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Illegal business associated with the extraction of income on an especially large scale”. The publication also said that Sitnikov himself associated his problems with a possible forceful seizure, recalling, in particular, ex-prosecutors of the YaNAO Nikolai Vetyugov and Alexander Gerasimenko.
