Gunvor

Gunvor Group Ltd is a Cypriot-domiciled multinational commodity trading company registered in Cyprus,[5] with its main trading office in Geneva, Switzerland.[1] Gunvor also has trading offices in Singapore, the Bahamas, and Dubai, with a network of representative offices around the globe. The company operates in the trade, transport, storage and optimization of petroleum and other energy products, as well as having investments in oil terminal and port facilities. Its operations consist of securing crude oil upstream and delivering it to market via pipelines and tankers.

Gunvor Group Ltd
TypePrivate
IndustryCommodity
Founded2000
FounderGennady Timchenko
Torbjörn Törnqvist
Headquarters
Geneva Switzerland
(Head office)
Nicosia, Cyprus
(Registered office)[1]
Area served
Global
Key people
Torbjörn Törnqvist
ServicesEnergy trading, raw materials
RevenueUS$75 billion (2019)[2]
US$381 million (2019)[3]
OwnerTorbjorn Tornqvist (87%)
Employees (13%)[4]
Number of employees
1,600 (2012)
Websitegunvorgroup.com

The company, which was founded in 2000, is the fourth largest crude oil trader in the world after Glencore, Vitol, and Trafigura.[6][7] The company was co-founded and controlled by Gennady Timchenko together with Torbjörn Törnqvist (after whose mother the company is named[8]); however, due to United States sanctions, Timchenko sold his stake in the company to Törnqvist in March 2014.[9][10]

Gunvor's largest single supplier of crude oil was once Russia, though the company now originates most of its crude oil from the Americas, with less than 13 percent coming from Russia.[11][12] It also trades African, Asian, and South-American crude and is active on all continents.[13] In 2011, Gunvor was trading less than 20% of Russia's seaborne oil.[14]

Early years

Gennady Timchenko and Torbjörn Törnqvist began working together in 1997, and formalized Gunvor in 2000.[15] In 2003, the company started operations in Geneva.[16]

According to the Financial Times, until 2007 the company was a "niche player"[17] focused on exporting Russian oil through Estonia, relying on the expertise of its two founders in the oil business, Russian market and transit logistics. Torbjörn Törnqvist is a Swedish citizen born in 1953. He has traded oil across the world for over twenty years, beginning his career at BP. Gennady Timchenko is a Finnish citizen born in the Soviet Union in 1952. He has more than 20 years experience in the oil industry, beginning with the Kirishi refinery during perestroika, and was one of the first Russians to export oil to Europe after the Soviet Union collapsed.

In 2007, Gunvor's turnover was US$43 billion, with exports of 83 million tons of oil and petroleum products (up from 60 million tons in 2006). In 2010, the company's turnover grew to US$65 billion, up from US$53 billion in 2009, with volumes increasing to 104 million tons.[18]

Logistics and infrastructures

Gunvor has invested in oil storages facilities, railway transportation as well as port facilities and terminals, therefore ensuring a "comparative advantage over their competitors", according to Törnqvist interviewed by the Financial Times.[17] According to the company website, Gunvor is associated with a railway oil transportation company (Transoil) and owns its own shipping company, Clearlake Shipping Ltd, which shipped 30% of the Baltic crude oil (20.5 million tonnes) in 2006.[19]

According to Nefte Compass, from February 2002 to February 2008, Russian oil exports through Gunvor increased sixteen times. The company controls 60% of the volume transiting through Estonia, and 41% of that transit via the port of Primorsk, Leningrad Oblast.

In 2009, Gunvor made major investments into physical assets such as oil terminals and facilities, the largest being into its oil export terminal in the port of Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea, outside of St-Petersburg. In September 2009, the terminal was sold to Transneft.[20]

In September 2009, Gunvor made its first direct investment in oil exploration when it purchased a 30% interest in Lagansky block in the Caspian sea from Lundin Petroleum. The field has proven reserves of over 230 million barrels of oil.[21]

Gunvor also owns three major European refineries based in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. The Gunvor Petroleum Rotterdam refinery can process 88,000 barrels per day, while the Ingolstadt refinery located in Bavaria can handle 110,000 barrels per day and is supplied by the Transalpine Pipeline from the marine shipping terminal in Trieste, Italy. Gunvor also owns a large refinery with a capacity in excess of 100,000 barrels per day located in the north of the Port of Antwerp.[22]

Expansion

Gunvor has expanded beyond its Russian roots, and trades globally, including in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Americas with its main trading hubs located in Geneva, Singapore, Nassau and Dubai.[23] The group has also opened offices in Amsterdam, Moscow, Beijing and Nigeria. Gunvor has stated that it intends to develop its new energy trading division so that it will become a more significant part of a more diversified business.

In 2009, Gunvor established its Global Energy division,[24] focused on trading a broad range of energy commodities including Global Coal and Freight, Emissions and Renewables, Natural Gas and LNG and Power.

The company intends to continue to expand and diversify in 2010, both geographically and across the energy value chain. Marking a new phase in its expansion into the European energy markets, Gunvor entered its first trades in the natural gas, power and carbon markets in January 2010, and extending its trading capability across North West and Central Europe for physical natural gas and coal across the globe.[25]

In April 2010, the company hired traders who take responsibility for Gunvor's physical-gas positions across continental Europe, D. Smith for as a coal trader in 2010, and Fredrik Bodecke who will be responsible for the Nordic and Baltic electricity markets.[26]

Ownership

The real beneficiaries of Gunvor cannot be ascertained. It was said that its two co-founders held an equal number of shares, with the balance being held in an employee benefit trust for senior management.[27] Tornqvist bought out Timchenko's 43.5% stake and became a nominal owner of 87% stake in the company, on 19 March 2014.[9] On 20 March 2014 Timchenko was included on the United States' Sanctions list in the wake of the annexation of Crimea by Russia, due to his close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.[10] Timchenko explained the sale by "anticipating potential economic sanctions" and to "ensure with certainty the continued and uninterrupted operations of Gunvor Group".[10] The value of this transaction was not disclosed.[9]

Controversies

In 2008 The Economist mentioned Timchenko in an article that repeated previously published statements about Timchenko and Gunvor. Both of these parties sued for libel.[28] The Economist withdrew the contested material from its website. The lawsuit was settled in July 2009.[29] The Economist published a correcting statement.[30]

Following the major WikiLeaks release of US State Department cables in November 2010, it was reported by the London Daily Telegraph[31] that the wealth of the then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is linked to a "secretive Swiss-based oil trading firm" called Gunvor. It said that John Beyrle, the United States Ambassador to the Russian Federation stated that close connections exist between Gunvor and the Russian Government and that he reported: "its secretive ownership is rumoured to include prime minister Putin." The newspaper goes on to report that Gunvor has, however, totally refuted the existence of any links between it and Mr Putin. Gunvor stated in response to the WikiLeaks disclosure that Timchenko and Tornqvist owned "a large majority of Gunvor" and that a "minority stake is owned by an employee benefit trust". It went on to say that "the company had taken out credit facilities which require full disclosure of company ownership".[32]

According to the former Chairman of the Russian State Duma Ivan Rybkin,[33][34] and Russian political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky,[35][36] who was affiliated to the late Boris Berezovsky (a Russian oligarch-in-exile and a political opponent of Putin), Putin controls (among other investments) 50% in Gunvor, run by Gennady Timchenko, a close friend.[37][38]

In 2017, a Swedish Radio documentary presented evidence that Gunvor had been involved in a Belarusian oil smuggling scheme featuring corruption at the highest levels in the Belarus government.[39] This documentary won the 2017 Prix Europa award in the "Radio Current Affairs" category. [40] Gunvor has officially denied any wrongdoing.

In March 2020, The Sunday Times published an article based on an 2015 interview with Sergei Pugachev, once known as Kremlin's banker, linking Gunvor to Russian President Vladimir Putin.[41]

In 2019, Gunvor "was condemned by Swiss authorities to pay approximately US$96.7 million[42] for failing to put adequate measures in place to prevent the bribery of foreign government officials[43] in Cote d’Ivoire and the Republic of Congo in exchange for lucrative oil deals."[44] In 2021 Transparency International included this as one of five examples of foreign bribery in "clean" countries in the Corruption Perception Index.[44]

References

Notes
  1. "Gunvor". GunvorGroup.com.
  2. https://www.reuters.com/article/gunvor-grp-results-idUSL8N2DF2ZU
  3. https://www.reuters.com/article/gunvor-grp-results-idUSL8N2DF2ZU
  4. "What does U.S. know about Putin's oil wealth?". March 21, 2014 – via www.reuters.com.
  5. "Oil traders and Cyprus". Financial Times.
  6. "Secretive Russian Gunvor becomes number 3 oil trader". Reuters. 2007-10-31. Retrieved 2008-06-12.
  7. "Как устроен бизнес миллиардера Тимченко | Миллиардеры". Forbes.ru. November 9, 2012.
  8. Hedberg, Kristina; Laurin, Fredrik; Bagge, Peter (2011-09-06). "Oljehandlare – och en omvittnad tävlingsmänniska". Uppdrag granskning. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
  9. Zhdannikov, Dmitry; Mackey, Peg; Bousso, Ron (2014-03-21). "Oil firms, U.S. banks trade with Gunvor after co-founder sanctioned". Reuters. Retrieved 2014-03-22.
  10. Johnson, Luke (2014-03-21). "Timchenko sells stake in Gunvor". Upstream Online. NHST Media Group. Retrieved 2014-03-22.
  11. "Crude Oil - Gunvor Group". gunvorgroup.com.
  12. Editorial, Reuters. "Vitol, Glencore dominate Russian oil trading". reuters.com.
  13. Paul Samson (2009-04-23). "Gunvor expands into US, Latin America". Nefte Compass (requires a subscription). Energy Intelligence Group, Inc. Archived from the original on 2009-08-01. Retrieved 2009-05-30.
  14. "Gunvor cuts share Russia seaborne oil exports", "Reuters", October 10, 2011.
  15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-09-18. Retrieved 2012-08-31.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. "Wirtschaft ist Gesellschaft | Capital". Capital.de. Archived from the original on August 2, 2009.
  17. "Subscribe to read". Financial Times. Cite uses generic title (help)
  18. "Gunvor turnover rises in 2010, sees better 2011", "Reuters", February 23, 2011.
  19. "News - Riverlake Group". www.riverlake.ch.
  20. Eric Watkins (2009-09-10). "Transneft buys Baltic oil terminal from Gunvor". Oil & Gas Journal (requires subscription). PennWell Corporation. Retrieved 2010-04-17.
  21. Lundin Petroleum 'Lundin Petroleum partners with Gunvor in the Lagansky block', 2 Sep. 2009
  22. "Refineries - Gunvor Group". gunvorgroup.com.
  23. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-09-18. Retrieved 2012-08-31.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  24. Bloomberg, 'Gunvor appoints Essent's Aliabadi head of Global energy Unit', Sept 2 2009
  25. "Gunvor enters natural gas, power and carbon markets - Risk.net". risk.net. 11 January 2010.
  26. Amanat, Reza (13 April 2010). "UPDATE: Gunvor To Expand Global Trading Activity With New Hires". Dow Jones Newswires. ADVFN. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  27. Affars Varlden 'Secret Oil billionaires', 22 September 2009
  28. "La Tribune de Geneve".
  29. "Vedomosti". vedomosti.ru.
  30. "Gennady Timchenko and Gunvor International BV". The Economist. July 30, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-01.
  31. Daily Telegraph Wikileaks: 'Putin's 'secret billions, Dec 03, 2010
  32. Oil trading group Gunvor denies Putin links, Financial Times, 2 December 2010
  33. Corwin, Julie A. (13 February 2004). "Do not attempt to adjust your set". RFE/RL Reports. Radio Free Europe. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
  34. Ирина Романчева (2004-02-03). Рыбкин собрал компромат на президента. Экс-глава Совбеза России "рассекречивает" бизнесменов из кремлевского окружения (in Russian). Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper. Retrieved 2007-12-10. Now it is Putin who is Russia's biggest business oligarch.
  35. Quiring, Von Manfred (12 November 2007). "Warum Putin gar nicht Präsident bleiben will". Die Welt. Retrieved 2007-12-04.
  36. Jonas Bernstein (2007-11-19). "Staniskav Belkovsky: Putin will leave power completely". The Jamestown Foundation. Archived from the original on 21 November 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-06.
  37. Gennadi Timchenko: Russia's most low-profile billionaire Sobesednik № 10, 7 March 2007
  38. Миллиардер Тимченко, "друг Путина", стал одним из крупнейших в мире продавцов нефти. NEWSru.com 1 ноября 2007 г.
  39. "KGB-agenten och oljesmugglingen". 7 May 2017 – via sverigesradio.se.
  40. "Ekot-granskning om oljesmuggling prisas". 20 October 2017 – via sverigesradio.se.
  41. Belton, Catherine. "The inside story of how Putin and his KGB cronies took control of Russia" (29 March 2020). Times Newspapers Limited. The Sunday Times. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  42. Hoffman, Andy; Miller, Hugo (2019-10-17). "Trader Gunvor Pays $95 Million to Swiss in Corruption Probe". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  43. Payne, Julia (2019-10-17). "Gunvor must pay $95 million for Congo oil corruption: Swiss prosecutors". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  44. "CPI 2020: Five cases of trouble at the top". Transparency International. 2021-01-28. Retrieved 2021-01-30.

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