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factual edits made in reference to the company's updated status and activities.
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==Ownership==
==Ownership==
The ownership of Gunvor cannot be ascertained, as it is a privately-owned company. It is said that its two founders hold an equal number of shares, with the balance being held in an employee benefit trust for senior management.<ref>Affars Varlden [http://www.affarsvarlden.se/tidningen/article641248.ece, 'Secret Oil billionaires'], Sep 22 2009</ref>
There have been a number of rumours surrounding Gunvor's ownership over the years, including claims that Vladimir Putin was a shareholder in the company. This has always been vigorously denied by Gunvor.<ref>Financial Times [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e2a8af96-fe3f-11df-abac-00144feab49a.html#axzz1lmyb64eA, 'Oil trading group Gunvor denies Putin links'] Dec 3, 2012</ref> Any connection was also denied by Mr. Putin in September 2011.<ref>Financial Times [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/108aaace-ea10-11e0-b997-00144feab49a.html#axzz1lmyb64eA, 'Putin denies aiding oil trader'] Sept 28, 2011</ref> In 2009 it was disclosed that Gennady Timchenko and Torbjörn Törnqvist each own about 45%, with the remaining balance being held in an employee benefit trust for senior management.<ref>Affars Varlden [http://www.affarsvarlden.se/tidningen/article641248.ece, 'Secret Oil billionaires'], Sep 22 2009</ref>

Following the major [[Wikileaks]] release of US [[State Department]] cables in November 2010, it was reported by the London [[Daily Telegraph]]<ref>Daily Telegraph [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8175406/WikiLeaks-Putins-secret-billions.html, Wikileaks: 'Putin's 'secret billions''], Dec 03, 2010</ref> that the wealth of 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 Wikileak 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".<ref>[http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e2a8af96-fe3f-11df-abac-00144feab49a.html#axzz1Nq4WdZH2 Oil trading group Gunvor denies Putin links], ''Financial Times'', 2 December 2010</ref>

According to former [[Speaker of the Duma|Chairman]] of the Russian [[State Duma]] [[Ivan Rybkin]],<ref>{{cite web |last=Corwin |first=Julie A. |title=''Do not attempt to adjust your set'' |work=RFE/RL Reports |publisher=[[Radio Free Europe]] |date=13 February 2004 |url=http://www.rferl.org/reports/mm/2004/02/3-130204.asp |accessdate=2007-12-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ng.ru/politics/2004-02-03/2_rybkin.html |title=''Рыбкин собрал компромат на президента. Экс-глава Совбеза России "рассекречивает" бизнесменов из кремлевского окружения'' |accessdate=2007-12-10 |author=Ирина Романчева |date=2004-02-03 |publisher=''Nezavisimaya Gazeta'' newspaper |language=Russian |quote=Now it is Putin who is Russia's biggest business oligarch.}}</ref> and Russian [[political scientist]] [[Stanislav Belkovsky]],<ref>{{cite web |last=Quiring |first=Von Manfred |title=Warum Putin gar nicht Präsident bleiben will |publisher=[[Die Welt]] |date=12 November 2007 |url=http://www.welt.de/politik/article1352592/Warum_Putin_gar_nicht_Praesident_bleiben_will.html |accessdate=2007-12-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2372600 |title=Staniskav Belkovsky: Putin will leave power completely |accessdate=2007-12-06 |author=Jonas Bernstein |date=2007-11-19 |publisher=The Jamestown Foundation |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20071121013836/http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2372600 |archivedate = 21 November 2007}}</ref> who's affiliated with [[Boris Berezovsky (businessman)|Boris Berezovsky]] (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.<ref>[http://www.wps.ru/en/pp/story/2007/03/12.html Gennadi Timchenko: Russia's most low-profile billionaire] ''Sobesednik'' № 10, 7 March 2007</ref><ref>[http://newsru.com/finance/01nov2007/gunvor.html Миллиардер Тимченко, "друг Путина", стал одним из крупнейших в мире продавцов нефти.] NEWSru.com 1 ноября 2007 г.</ref>


==The Economist lawsuit==
==The Economist lawsuit==

Revision as of 15:43, 8 February 2012

Gunvor Group Ltd
Company typePrivate
IndustryEnergy
Founded1997
FounderGennady Timchenko
Torbjorn Törnqvist (CEO)
Headquarters
Nicosia
,
Cyprus
ServicesEnergy and other commodity trading
RevenueIncrease US$65 billion (2010)
OwnerGennady Timchenko
Torbjörn Törnqvist
Trust for senior staff
Websitewww.gunvorgroup.com

Gunvor Group Ltd is one of the world's largest commodity trading companies by turnover. Registered in Nicosia, Cyprus,[1] Gunvor's main trading offices are in Geneva, Singapore, 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.

The company, which was founded in 1997, is the fourth largest crude oil trader in the world after Glencore, Vitol, and Trafigura, and is controlled by Gennady Timchenko and Torbjörn Törnqvist.[2][3]

Gunvor's largest single supplier of crude oil is Russia, though the company also trades African, Asian and South-American crude and is active on all continents.[4] Currently Gunvor trades less than 20% of Russia's seaborne oil.[5]

"Gunvor" is an Old Norse name meaning "careful in fighting".[6] One of Torbjörn Törnqvist's mother's names was also Gunvor.[citation needed]

Early years

The company was created in 1997, by Gennady Timchenko and Torbjörn Törnqvist. In 2003, the company started operations in Geneva.[7]

According to the Financial Times, until 2003 the company was a "niche player"[8] 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.[9]

Logistics and infrastructures

Gunvor has invested in oil storage 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.[8] 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.[10]

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. The terminal commenced test operations in Q2 2011. This terminal is an environmentally friendly facility and will be the largest in Europe. [11]

Gunvor also has a 50% stake in the LLC Novorossiysk Fuel Oil Terminal, which is a joint venture project with the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP).

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.[12]

In 2011 Gunvor made several investments into the coal sector. The company invested in a minority stake of Keaton Energy Holdings, a South African company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchnage. [13] Gunvor made an investment in Kolmar, a coking coal mining and processing company operating several mines in Eastern Siberia. [14] Gunvor also acquired a 33% stake in the Signal Peak coal mine in Montana, United States. [15]

Expansion

Gunvor has expanded beyond its Russian roots, and trades globally, including in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Americas, and is diversifying into a range of commodities. Its main trading hubs are located in Geneva and Singapore.[citation needed] The group has also opened offices in Amsterdam, Nicosia, Moscow, Houston, Beijing and Nigeria.[citation needed].

In 2009, Gunvor started trading a broad range of energy commodities including Global Coal and Freight, Emissions and Renewables, Natural Gas and LNG.

The company intends to continue to expand and diversify, 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.[16]

Ownership

There have been a number of rumours surrounding Gunvor's ownership over the years, including claims that Vladimir Putin was a shareholder in the company. This has always been vigorously denied by Gunvor.[17] Any connection was also denied by Mr. Putin in September 2011.[18] In 2009 it was disclosed that Gennady Timchenko and Torbjörn Törnqvist each own about 45%, with the remaining balance being held in an employee benefit trust for senior management.[19]

The Economist lawsuit

On November 27, 2008, as part of a lengthy special report on Russia, The Economist mentioned Timchenko in an article headlined Grease My Palm,[20] that repeated, briefly, previously published statements about Timchenko and Gunvor. Both parties sued for libel.[21] The Economist withdrew the contested material from its website. The lawsuit was settled in July 2009.[22] The Economist published a statement [23] stating that:

In a section of our special report on Russia entitled "Grease my palm" (29 November 2008) we referred to Gunvor and its co-founder, Gennady Timchenko. We are happy to make it clear that when we referred to the "new corruption" in today's Russia, we did not intend to suggest that either Gunvor or Mr Timchenko obtained their Russian oil business as a result of payment by them of bribes or like corrupt inducements. Rosneft sells only 30-40% of its oil through Gunvor rather than the "bulk" of Rosneft's oil (as we described it). We accept Gunvor's assurances that neither Vladimir Putin nor other senior Russian political figures have any ownership interest in Gunvor. We regret if any contrary impression was given.

References

  1. ^ "Gunvor". GunvorGroup.com.
  2. ^ "Secretive Russian Gunvor becomes number 3 oil trader". Reuters. 2007-10-31. Retrieved 2008-06-12.
  3. ^ "Кому кто повезет". Russian Newsweek. 2007-01-15. Retrieved 2008-05-10. [dead link]
  4. ^ Paul Samson (2009-04-23). "Gunvor expands into US, Latin America". Nefte Compass (requires a subscription). Energy Intelligence Group, Inc. Retrieved 2009-05-30. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  5. ^ "UPDATE 1-Gunvor cuts share Russia seaborne oil exports-paper","Reuters", Oct 10, 2011.
  6. ^ Nordic names
  7. ^ Die Stadt, das Öl und das Geld Capital
  8. ^ a b How Gunvor rose to the top of Russian oil trading, Financial Times, 14 May 2008
  9. ^ "Gunvor turnover rises in 2010, sees better 2011",Reuters",Feb 23,2011
  10. ^ Who is the Tsar of Baltic Oil? Riverlake Group News, January 19 2007
  11. ^ [1]"Kommersant", May 26,2011.
  12. ^ Lundin Petroleum 'Lundin Petroleum partners with Gunvor in the Lagansky block', 2 Sep. 2009
  13. ^ [2], "Reuters", Feb 17, 2011.
  14. ^ [3], "Reuters", July 6, 2011.
  15. ^ [4], "RT", October 20, 2011.
  16. ^ Risk-net Gunvor enters natural gas, power and carbon markets]
  17. ^ Financial Times 'Oil trading group Gunvor denies Putin links' Dec 3, 2012
  18. ^ Financial Times 'Putin denies aiding oil trader' Sept 28, 2011
  19. ^ Affars Varlden 'Secret Oil billionaires', Sep 22 2009
  20. ^ "Grease my palm". The Economist. November 27, 2008. Retrieved 2009-09-01.
  21. ^ La Tribune de Geneve
  22. ^ Vedomosti
  23. ^ "Gennady Timchenko and Gunvor International BV". The Economist. July 30, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-01.

Further reading

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gunvor&oldid=475774116"