About the participation of AFK Sistema in the business of the Grenadian company Global Petroleum Group (GPG), which is exploring and drilling near the island state of Grenada in the Caribbean Sea, according to the internal report of Sistema. Vedomosti got acquainted with the document. Information from the report was confirmed by a person who knows about him from the managers of Sistema. Such a project does exist, two people close to Sistema confirmed it.
GPG in 2008 received a license from the Government of Grenada for 38 years to explore and produce oil and gas on blocks B, C, D2, D3, D4, D5, with the government concluded a production sharing agreement. In 2013, Sistema Holding (Cyprus), a 100% subsidiary of Sistema, bought 50% of Belize's Multiple Investments, which is the sole owner of GPG for $ 10.5 million. The seller is not named in the report, the other 50% in the project belong to the citizen of Cyprus Eduard Vasiliev, who is also the director of GPG.
Later, Sistema provided two loans for exploration and drilling to GPG: the first was unsecured for $ 69.2 million, the second for $ 100 million against a collateral of 19% of GPG, its "System" can convert to GPG shares, the report said.
GPG is the only company that conducts exploration in the waters of Grenada. The representative of Sistema declined to comment. The government of Grenada did not respond to Vedomosti's request.
Earlier, investors in the oil and gas industry of Grenada were not, because because of disagreements inside the government and the parliament of the country, investors did not have security guarantees for their investments, says a person who knows this from a Grenadian official. But last year Grenada adopted the law "On Encouraging Hydrocarbon Exploration" in order to spur the interest of investors.
Vladimir Yevtushenkov's "System" has always been interested in the oil and gas industry. Back in the 1990s. AFC had a network of gas stations in Moscow "Cedar-M". In the years 2005 and 2009, Sistema bought first blocking and then controlling stakes in Bashkirian fuel and energy companies, which merged into the Bashneft oil holding. The company spent about $ 2.6 billion buying up shares. Ural Rakhimov, the son of the president of Bashkiria Murtaza Rakhimov, is considered to be the seller. In 2014, a criminal case was brought against Rakhimov Jr. on charges of embezzling shares of the Bashkir fuel and energy complex from the state, and Yevtushenkov was accused of legalizing stolen actions and spent three months under house arrest. Although, according to many lawyers, Sistema was a conscientious acquirer, the arbitration court seized a 71% stake in Bashneft from the holding company Evtushenkov in favor of the state. Sistema did not challenge this decision.
But the Prosecutor General's Office did not recover from it the dividends received from Bashneft - 190 billion rubles.
But Rosneft got Bashneft. In 2017, both companies demanded that AFC compensate for the damage inflicted on Bashneft and return the dividends. The amount of claims exceeded 300 billion rubles. As a result, the parties concluded the world, Sistema paid Rosneft and Bashneft 100 billion rubles.
Familiar with the managers of GPG, a person asserts that the extraction "should begin in the near future." The first well was drilled in 2017, AFK said in a report. According to DeGolyer, the gas reserves of GPG are about 400 billion cubic meters. m, the current cost of the project is $ 774 million. The interests of Sistema in the project are presented by Evgeny Novitsky, it follows from the report that he is appointed the second director of GPG, without his signature the company can not make deals. He was in 1995-2005. was the president of Sistema, and in 2005-2013. was a member of the Board of Directors of the AFC. Novitsky did not answer the questions of Vedomosti. And his friend says that the top manager "is not responsible for the project, he was only a consultant."
Grenada is a tiny state that has never been considered a source of hydrocarbons, says Dmitri Marinchenko, Director of Fitch Corporation. Accordingly, its legislation in the field of natural resource extraction has not really been formed. "According to the World Bank's Doing Business index, the country is on the 142nd place, next to Pakistan and Nigeria, which speaks of a rather complicated investment climate," Marinchenko sums up.