Industry Oil and gas Founded 2002 | Founder Mykola Zlochevsky Headquarters Limassol Type of business Private | |
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Key people Alan Apter (Non-executive chairman), Aleksander Kwaśniewski (Independent director), Hunter Biden (Independent director) Subsidiaries Burisma Geothermal Limited, Naftohaz Harant, First Ukrainian Oil and Gas Company | ||
Burisma Holdings is an energy exploration and production company operating in the Ukrainian oil and gas market since 2002. The head office is in Limassol, Cyprus.
Contents
History
Burisma Holdings was founded in 2002 by Ukrainian businessman Mykola Zlochevskyi and Nikolay Lysin. It is owned by Zlochevskyi.
Operations
Burisma Holdings is organised into three major business groupings: Burisma Ukraine, Burisma Eurasia and Burisma Geothermal.
Burisma Ukraine
The company holds 20 licenses for hydrocarbon production in all main oil and gas basins of Ukraine, including Dnieper-Donets and Carpathian. The fields are connected to nearby gas pipelines. 87% of EBITDA is generated in the Dnieper-Donets basin. 91% of Burisma Holdings' production volume comes from the Dnieper-Donets basin, which contains 82% of the natural gas reserves in Ukraine. The company has a 30% share among independent domestic oil and gas producers.
Burisma Eurasia
Burisma Eurasia operates in the oil and gas industry in Central Asia, providing industrial engineering work, including search and exploration, drilling and measurement-while-drilling, formation evaluation, maintenance of wells and production control, information technology and consulting.
Burisma Eurasia established operations in Kazakhstan in 2014. In 2015, Burisma Eurasia signed agreements with JSC NC KazMunayGas and its affiliate companies, and performs drilling and other contracts for state-owned companies.
Burisma Geothermal
Founded in 2015, Burisma Geothermal specializes in geothermal energy development and electricity production. Burisma Geothermal acquired one of the largest continental geothermal projects. The firm signed an agreement with the international group Gesto Investimento e Gestão (GIG) to invest in three projects: Montenero, Mazzolla and Cinigiano. Burisma plans to invest €175 mln in geothermal projects in Italy.
Board of directors
A number of non-Ukrainian directors were appointed in 2014, including Aleksander Kwaśniewski, former President of the Republic of Poland, appointed in January 2014.
On April 18, 2014, Burisma Holdings announced Hunter Biden's appointment to the board. On their website, Biden wrote that he believed Burisma was important to the economy of Ukraine and that he would be "consulting the company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities”. He became an acting member of the board of directors on May 12, 2014. In February 2016, Joseph Cofer Black, the former Director of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center (1999-2002) and Ambassador at Large for counter-terrorism (2002-2004) joined Burisma’s Board of Directors. Joseph Cofer Black is a recognized expert in the field of combating international terrorism, cyber-security, national security and international relations.
Press reaction
After the appointments were announced, press articles raised concerns about Biden's potential conflicts with US government positions. CNN stated that "The [Biden] appointment caused a stir, given that it occurred around the same time that his father and the White House were engaged in diplomatic missions in the region to wean Ukraine off Russian energy sources. Critics argued that Hunter's work for a country promoting Ukrainian energy independence was a blatant conflict of interest."
Biden traveled to Kiev on April 22, 2014 and urged the Ukraine government "... to reduce its dependence on Russia for supplies of natural gas".
The White House dismissed nepotism charges against Biden, and Press Secretary Jay Carney stated that "the Biden family are obviously private citizens, and where they work does not reflect an endorsement by the administration or by the vice president or president," a comment that was supported by Michael Sawkiw of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.
Morgan Williams, director of the US-Ukraine Business Council, discerned a conflict, though he had seen no direct evidence of one. He argued it was a problem of appearance, as there was an "unspoken" American tradition that "frowns" on "close family members of government working for organizations with business links to active politics." At the same time, Melanie Sloan, Executive Director for the non-profit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) stated that “unless there is solid evidence that Hunter Biden got his job to influence American foreign policy, there’s no clear line that has been crossed”.
International Forum on Energy Security for the Future
Burisma Group and Prince Albert II of Monaco (Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation) co-founded the first international initiative on energy security focused on alternative energy sources in Europe.