Tatneft

History

Tatneft was created in 1950 by the merger of several local oil companies and related industries. Tatneft is listed on the MICEX-RTS, and its ADRs are traded on the Frankfurt (ISIN: US6708312052) and London (LSE: ATAD) stock exchanges. For years, Tatneft traded under the ADR (stock symbol TNT). It retired that listing in 2006. In 2013 Tatneft produced its one millionth tire.

Operations

The main activities of Tatneft are:

Tatneft is the first Russian oil company, which developed a contract with Syria to extract oil. The contract became effective in March 2005.

As of 31 December 2007, Tatneft had total proved reserves of approximately 862 million tons of crude oil. It operated 77 oil fields, including the main field of the company - Romashkino, with total production capacity of 25 million tons of oil and a very high amount of natural gas annually. Other main oil fields are Novo-Yelokhov and Bavly. In addition to Russia, it conducts exploration and production operations also in Libya, Angola, Syria, Iran, Vietnam, Oman and Saudi Arabia. In 2008, Tatneft's crude oil production was of 189 million barrels in 2008 and is expected to shrink by 1.5% to 186 million barrels in 2009.

As of 1 July 2010, Tatneft had 626 filling stations, of which 490 are located on the territory of the Russian Federation and 136 are located in Ukraine.

In September 2007, Tatneft formed a strategic partnership with Royal Dutch Shell to develop heavy crude oil (bitumen) production in Tatarstan. It considers similar partnership with Chevron.

Through its subsidiary TANEKO, Tatneft is constructing the Nizhnekamsk refinery and petrochemical complex, which it intends to commission in phases in 2009 and 2011-2012. The complex will include of refineries with the capacity of seven million tons per year, deep oil conversion plant of 3.5 million tons per year and petrochemical plant, which will produce linear alkyl benzene for production of washing materials and oil lubricants, paraxylene and terephthalic acid for production of polyester fibers (u1074), cellophane film and bottles, and polypropylene. The complex is expected to cost US$3–3.2 billion, of which $2 billion was invested in 2008, and $1–1.2 billion would be invested in 2009.

Metal Mining Wire reports that in the first half of 2013, Tatneft has installed 630 gas filling stations across Russia. In Ukraine, the number of filling stations has reached 114, and Belarus has received a total of eight gas filling stations. Tatneft delivered 730,000 tons of petroleumand gas products to its filling stations. Tatneft also upgraded many of its stations to deliver diesel fuel and eco-friendly grade five gasoline, both of which have a lower negative environmental impact than traditional gasoline. As of July 2013, Tatneft is evaluating ways to install solar panels at its filling stations in an effort to save resources.

Shareholders

The main shareholder is the Republic of Tatarstan through its holding company Svyazinvestneftekhim, which holds 34% of Tatneft. The Government of Tatarstan holds also a golden share in the company.

Controversies

Tatneft has an ongoing dispute with the Government of Ukraine over control in Ukrtatnafta, an owner of the Kremenchuk oil refinery. Ukrainian state-owned energy company Naftogaz Ukrainy owns 43.1% of shares in Ukrtatnafta, Tatneft owns 8.6% and Government of Tatarstan owns 28.8%. 18% of the shares were transferred to two offshore companies allied with Tatneft, transaction which was not recognized by Ukrainian authorities. According to the court decision, these share were handed over to Naftogaz and in October 2007, there was a management change, which is not recognized by Tatneft. In March Tatneft filed international arbitration against Ukraine.

On 9 July 2008, after signing an agreement between the United States and the Czech Republic to host a tracking radar for an antiballistic missile system, Tatneft reduced oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline to the Czech Republic. Tatneft said that it re-routed volumes from the Czech Republic to Turkey due to better prices. Although officially the linkage between reduction of oil supplies and the radar agreement was not claimed, it was suspected.

Ecology

In 2013, TatNIPIneft, the Tatar Oil Research and Design Institute devised a new technology called SSG-VUKSZHS, which increases the depletion of oil reservoirs using a composition based on silica gel. The technology has been applied by Tatneft to enhance the recovery of oil, after winning the Grand Prix for best exhibit, engineering design or technical solution at the XX International Oil and Gas Exhibition 2013 held in Baku, Azerbaijan, in June.