Orlov turned off the gas for Kolesnykov’s friends

Orlov turned off the gas for Kolesnykov’s friends

Donetsk enricher Andriy Orlov steered Oleksandr Tyslenko and Vyacheslav Lyashko away from the gas business

The Ukrainian gas market has one less tandem. The partnership in the extraction of natural gas was dissolved between the entities influenced by former MP Andriy Orlov (“Nadra-geoinvest”) and a group of Donetsk businessmen led by Oleksandr Tyslenko, Vladyslav Helzin, and Vyacheslav Lyashko (“Logo Systems”). The winner from this separation was the owner of Europrombank, who strengthened his position at one of the largest fields in Poltava region.

In the photo — Oleksandr Tyslenko

The phase of entry of Borys Kolesnykov’s associates into the circle of Ukrainian gas extractors occurred in 2008. Back then, the company “Logo Systems”, controlled by Donetsk businessmen Artem Shcherban (FPG “Capital”), Oleksandr Tyslenko (“Altcom”), as well as Vladyslav Helzin (president of FC “Olimpik”) and Vyacheslav Lyashko (TC “White Swan”), considered to be people from the circle of former Deputy Prime Minister Borys Kolesnykov, signed an agreement to create a simple partnership with the state NAK “Nadra of Ukraine” and its “daughter” “Chernigivnaftogazgeology”.

Within this agreement, the parties agreed to jointly develop the Selyukhiv oil and gas field (Poltava region). The division of contributions to the joint project was traditional for such a case: from “Nadra of Ukraine”, a special permit to use the subsoil of this area was transferred to the JV, “Chernigivnaftogazgeology” was supposed to provide its own production facilities to develop this field, and “Logo Systems” took on the role of an investor in the planned works.

In the photo — Eduard Stavytskyi

This configuration worked for four years, but in the spring of 2012, a split occurred between them. The reason was the expiration of the special permit for the use of subsoil held by NAK “Nadra of Ukraine”. In its place, a license for the Selyukhiv field was issued to “Nadra-Geoinvest” LLC — a “daughter” of NAK “Nadra of Ukraine” and the company “Geo-invest”. The last one, according to journalists, was initially close to Maksym Maksymentsev, who started working in NAK “Nadra of Ukraine” in 2005 and rose to the position of deputy chairman. After the “regionalists” came to power, the company fell under the influence of former head of NAK “Nadra of Ukraine” Eduard Stavytskyi, who earned Yanukovych’s trust after the operation of transferring “Mezhyhirya” to him in 2007. Utilizing the status of the new owner of the special permit for the use of the Selyukhiv field subsoil, “Nadra-Geoinvest” LLC replaced “Nadra of Ukraine” in the aforementioned joint activity in 2012, but “Logo Systems” remained the operator of the JV.

After the change of power, Stavytskyi fled to Israel, and the business acquired through “hard work” was put up for sale. As a result, “Nadra-Geoinvest”, according to journalists, came under the influence of former MP-“regionalist”, founder of the coal processing group “Energoimpeks” Andriy Orlov last year. Thus, in 2016, the company was headed by the former head of COF “Proletarska” (part of Orlov’s orbit), and “Nadra-Geoinvest” was registered in the building of the central office of Europrombank, owned by members of the Orlov family.

In the photo — Andriy Orlov

After that, Orlov’s subordinates set about removing unnecessary participants from the gas extraction project: “Nadra-Geoinvest” went to court demanding the termination of the simple partnership agreement. The first attempt was unsuccessful: in September last year, both the first and the appellate instance refused to satisfy the claim of “Nadra-Geoinvest”, but in March 2017, the Higher Economic Court overturned these decisions, sending the case for retrial.

This time, the arguments of the company were to the judges’ liking: on July 5, 2017, the Donetsk Regional Commercial Court satisfied the claim of “Nadra-geoinvest”, on September 12, this decision was upheld by the Donetsk Appellate Commercial Court, and on December 5 — by the Higher Economic Court. Thus, Orlov received the opportunity to solely control the development of one of the most promising gas fields in the Poltava region. And “Nadra-geoinvest” — to swiftly increase its turnover, which was already significant, approaching the mark of 450 million hryvnias by 2016.