Ukrgasvydobuvannya: suitcase, station, Russia

This route involves the purchase of equipment from Russian companies with the subsequent transit of funds from the state company from Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

The Ukrgasvydobuvannya company seems to have technically rethought the well-known expression “suitcase, station, Russia.” Now, along this route, equipment is purchased from Russian companies with the subsequent transit of funds from a state company from Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

After all, Ukrgasvydobuvannya decided to purchase commodity services from the Weatherford Ukraine company, a subsidiary of the Irish-American Weatherford International, which was recognized by NAPC as a war sponsor in February of this year. And this, in my opinion, means that de facto Weatherford Ukraine continues to operate in Russia, pays millions of dollars in taxes there, and is also fully integrated into the technological process of ensuring the operation of the Russian oil and gas industry.

There is no doubt that participants in such a scheme can then come up with a beautiful legend about a “special operation of the intelligence service”, where the money of the Weatherford company was supposed to be used for a new explosion of the Crimean Bridge or a large-scale drone attack on Russian oil refineries. But no. In this case, the money simply ends up in accounts in Russia.

By the way, if there were no disabled prosecutors, corrupt officials from the TCC and MSEC, books from Zaluzhny, Zelensky’s new sanctions on the National Security and Defense Council, then they would have to be invented. Otherwise, Ukrgasvydobuvannya’s cooperation with the Russian market would be more noticeable and would arouse keen interest.

Some accuse Ukrgazvydobuvannya of legalizing “sponsors of war.” Is it possible to say that? I think that to a certain extent, there really was a collaboration between the state gas production sector and Russian business, which was banned in Ukraine.

And it’s not just that the other day the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine is considering a precedent complaint. We are talking about a “precedent” that may in the future concern both the oil and gas industry and other sectors of the economy (be it agricultural or financial) at the state and, perhaps, international levels.

In fact, the decision of the AMCU will have historical - at this military stage - significance. After all, after it there will already be an answer to the question of whether Ukrainian government agencies can cooperate with those who finance the war against Ukraine.

The mentioned company Weatherford Ukraine, which Ukrgasvydobuvannya admitted to the tender, is a fairly well-known company. After all, there are relatively few companies that provide services for studying the technical condition of casing strings of oil and gas wells. After all, this is the basis of the well and a guarantee of long-term operation of the well.

The problem of parent company Weatherford International (Ireland-USA) is not really something incredible or extraordinary. The owners of the company - and therefore the owners of the Ukrainian Weatherford Ukraine - decided not to leave the Russian market, continue to work there, earn money, pay taxes, etc. That is, Weatherford International and Weatherford Ukraine are not particularly hiding their cooperation with Russia. This is their choice. I won't judge them for this.

But then the question arises: if everything is known, openly and publicly, then why didn’t Ukrgasvydobuvannya draw conclusions for itself and distance itself from Weatherford Ukraine in order to avoid a scandal?

By the way, Weatherford’s main customer is the well-known Rosneft company under the leadership of Igor Sechin, one of the closest business associates of Russian President Putin. And this is the situation that everyone in Ukraine knows about the connection between Weatherford, Rosneft, Sechin... And nothing.

Somehow everyone quietly avoids these uncomfortable questions. And Ukrgasvydobuvannya generally simply takes 64 million UAH for the purchase of equipment and gives it to the Weatherford Ukraine company.

Perhaps the managers of Ukrgazvydobuvannya are inspired by the act of the Lviv oligarch Kozitsky, who turned out to be a partner of Gazprom through the business of the Czech oligarch Komarek.

He developed an oil terminal in the Samara region with the Russians. The connection between Ukrgasvydobuvannya and Kozitsky can also be seen in many tenders, where the company pays billions of hryvnia to a Galician businessman.

The story with Ukrgazdobycha, Rosneft, Weatherford International and Weatherford Ukraine could end, as always, in the “friendship wins” style. "Russian friendship". But the results of the tender were challenged by the American company USA Denimex Inc.

According to current legislation, Ukrgasvydobuvannya must reject a tender proposal if the winner is a company with owners registered in Russia. And in this case, the winner included the legal entity Weatherford global products limited, which is also a direct participant in the Russian Weatherford Holdings (Rus) LLC.

However, Ukrgazvydobuvannya said: “The Russians do not give up!” And they submitted to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine the official position of Weatherford Ukraine about the absence of ties with Russia. Like, so what if in real life some kind of Rosneft and some kind of Sechin work with this company. We don’t see this here in Ukraine.

To understand the situation, you just need to look at the work of Weatherford, which successfully works with mining companies in Russia. In the Russian Federation, Weatherford has an expanded network - Weatherford Holdings LLC (Rus), Weatherford LLC and Weatherfort Business Service LLC. All these Russian companies together paid taxes amounting to $15 million during 2022-2023. Weatherford imported millions of dollars worth of necessary equipment for oil and gas production to Russia.

That is, as for me, Weatherford’s business strategy directly stipulates that the Russian market is a priority for the company, and therefore we will continue to see Weatherford work in Russia. And this, of course, will bring income to the budget of the aggressor country.

And the justification of Ukrgazvydobuvannya that, supposedly, there are no NSDC sanctions against Weatherford, and until these sanctions are in place, we will work with Sechin’s partners - this, I think, is precisely the justification for these revenues from the Russian budget.

Therefore, in this case, the management of Ukrgazvydobuvannya must decide: either wear embroidered shirts or blouses. Otherwise, in the historical situation of war, it even smacks of high treason. At least now, even for lesser offenses, businesses receive suspicion under Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The National Security and Defense Council, I am sure, must have its weighty sanctioning word in this story. And it is now that the role of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, which is considering this case, is important. And, as I already said, this decision can really become historic, because it will either legalize cooperation with Russia, or finally prohibit Ukrgazvydobuvannya and other companies from sitting on two chairs at the same time.