Nobel Oil got a new owner – Kommersant

As Kommersant found out, Nobel Oil, which is developing oil fields in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra and Komi, has again changed its owner. Instead of ex-State Duma deputy Bekhan Agayev, who joined Nobel Oil at the end of 2020, this oil company came under the control of Iskender Khalilov, former vice president of Slavneft and co-owner of the Kuzbass Fuel Company. Mr. Khalilov is a longtime business partner of the founder of RussNeft and Neftisa, Mikhail Gutseriev. Now Neftisa continues to provide operator services to Nobel Oil.

The former vice-president of Slavneft, Iskender Khalilov, became the controlling beneficiary of the small oil company Nobel Oil, follows from its reporting. He entered Nobel Oil back in 2021 instead of the previous owner, ex-State Duma deputy Bekhan Agayev, who in 2020 bought this oil company from businessman Grigory Gurevich, the Hong Kong Oriental Patron Financial Group and China Investment Corporation (see “Kommersant” from February 1, 2021). At the same time, Neftisa, which at that time was owned by its founder Mikhail Gutseriev (current shareholders are not disclosed), began to provide operator services to Nobel Oil.

Nobel Oil is developing a number of fields in Komi and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra, the production of its subsoil users Neftus and Kolvaneft was about 350 thousand tons in 2021, the company’s recoverable reserves are about 87 million tons of oil. “Nobel Oil” in the future could increase production to 400-500 thousand tons per year, says Sergei Kondratiev from the Institute of Energy and Finance. According to the financial statements, the revenue of Neftus at the end of 2022 amounted to 3 billion rubles, net profit – 516 million rubles, revenue of Kolvaneft – 18.8 billion rubles, the company recorded a loss of 1.7 billion rubles.

Bekhan Agayev was an adviser to Mikhail Gutseriev at RussNeft when he owned the company. In addition, his father Vakha Agayev was friends with a businessman for many years. After Bekhan Agayev entered Nobel Oil, a representative of the Gutseriev family denied his attitude to this deal. One of Kommersant’s sources in the industry explained the receipt of Neftisa’s operatorship by the presence of commercial interests, taking into account the proximity of the assets to the Nobel Oil fields.

Neftis told Kommersant that the company continues to provide operator services to Nobel Oil. “The work is progressing very successfully: we are discovering new deposits,” the operator company added. Neftis itself produced 6.5 million tons of oil in 2022.

The new owner of Nobel Oil, Iskender Khalilov, is a Russian-Azerbaijani businessman, in the 2000s he served as vice president of Slavneft, when this company was headed by Mr. Gutseriev. The businessmen were also co-owners of the Kuzbass Fuel Company (KTK), which mines coal in the Kemerovo region. Now, according to CPC reports, its beneficiaries are Iskender Khalilov and ex-senator from Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra Viktor Pichugov. As of 2022, Mr. Khalilov was also the owner of the former DTEK coal assets of Ukrainian businessman Rinat Akhmetov in the Rostov region (see Kommersant on January 20). The family of Mr. Khalilov also has interests in the railway business in the Russian Federation, his son Rakhman owns RailGo, an oil cargo carrier.

A representative of Iskender Khalilov told Kommersant that the businessman does not own Nobel Oil “in the interests of third parties.” “It so happened historically that he was always connected with the oil business, and this asset seemed interesting to him,” he explained.

Dmitry Kozlov