Burisma Holdings

Burisma Holdings Limited (Ukrainian: Бурісма Холдингс; Greek: Μπουρίσμα Χόλντιγκς) is a holding company for a group of energy exploration and production companies. It is based in Kiev, Ukraine, but registered in Limassol, Cyprus. Burisma Holdings has operated in the Ukrainian natural gas market since 2002. It is one of the largest private natural gas producers in Ukraine.[4][5] It is owned by Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky through his company Brociti Investments Limited (Ukrainian: Бросіті Інвестментс Лімітед).

Burisma Holdings Limited
Private
IndustryOil and gas
Founded2002
FounderMykola Zlochevsky
Headquarters
Limassol
,
Cyprus
Key people
Mykola Zlochevsky (President)
Taras Burdeinyi (CEO)[1]
Alan Apter (Chairman)[2][3]
ProductsNatural gas
ServicesDrilling
OwnerBrociti Investments Limited
SubsidiariesBurisma Services
Aldea
Esko-Pivnich
Persha Ukrainska Naftogazova Kompaniya
GasOilInvest
KUB-Gas
Naftogaz Garant
Naftogazopromyslova geologiya
Pari
Nadragas
Nadragasvydobuvannya
SystemOilEngineering
Tehnokomservis
Websiteburisma-group.com/eng/

Burisma's subsidiaries include Esko-Pivnich, Pari, Persha Ukrainska Naftogazova Kompaniya, Naftogaz Garant, KUB-Gas and Astroinvest-Ukraine.[6][7][8]

History

Burisma was founded in 2002.[9][10] Consolidation of the Burisma Group took place mainly in 2006 and 2007.[11] It became a major shareholder of Sunrise Energy Resources, a Delaware Corporation, which in 2004 acquired Ukrainian companies Esko-Pivnich (Ukrainian: Еско-Північ) and Pari (Ukrainian: Парі), which owned natural gas exploration licences.[12] In 2009, shares in these companies were transferred to Millington Solutions Limited.[12] However, shortly thereafter Millington ceased to exist, and Burisma claimed ownership of those two companies. In 2012, Persha Ukrainska Naftogazova Kompaniya (First Ukrainian Oil and Gas Company, Ukrainian: Перша Українська нафтогазова компанія), Naftogaz Garant (Oil and Gas Guarantee, Ukrainian: Нафтогаз гарант), and KrymTopEnergoServis (CrimeaTopEnergoService, Ukrainian: Кримтопенергосервіс) became a part of the Burisma Group.[13][14][15]

In 2014, Burisma signed a cooperation agreement with KazMunayGas, the national oil and gas company of Kazakhstan.[16] In 2016, Burisma bought two hydraulic fracturing (fracking) fleets.[17] In 2017, it bought a 3,000-horsepower Service King Manufacturing SK 3000 drilling rig for $40 million (USD); it was the most powerful drilling rig in Eastern Europe at the time.[18]

In February 2016, Burisma acquired a 70% stake in KUB-Gas (КУБ-Газ).[6] In 2017, it bought a majority stake in Diloretio Holdings Limited, a company which owned Ukrainian gas companies SystemOilEngineering (Ukrainian: Системойлинжиниринг), Naftogazopromyslova geologiya, (Oil and Gas Industrial Geology, Ukrainian: Нафтогазпромислова геологія), and Tehnokomservis (TechnoComService, Ukrainian: Технокомсервіс).[19] Also in 2017, Burisma bought Nadragasvydobuvannya (Subsoil Gas Extraction, Ukrainian: Надрагазвидобування)[20] and GasOilInvest (Гасоілінвест).[21] In April 2019, Burisma acquired Astroinvest Ukraine (Астроінвест-Україна), a natural gas trader.[7]

In 2015, Burisma was one of the founders of the International Forum on Energy Security for the Future and partnered the Electric Marathon.[22] In 2017, it signed a partnership agreement with the Atlantic Council to promote anti-corruption measures.[23][24]

Operations

Burisma's primary operations are in Ukraine, supplemented by activities in Germany, Mexico, Italy, and Kazakhstan.[17] It holds 35 gas production licences in Ukraine in the Dnieper-Donets, Carpathian, and Azov-Kuban Basins.[6][9] Exploration and production activities are carried out at eight sites in five regions.[25] Burisma also provides natural gas well services, including hydraulic fracturing.[17] Burisma plans to build a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plant in Kharkiv with a capacity of 50,000 tonnes per year.[8]

In 2016, Burisma was the second largest privately owned natural gas producer in Ukraine after DTEK,[5] accounting for 26% of all natural gas produced by privately owned companies and more than 5% of total gas production in Ukraine.[5][26] According to the company, it produced 1.3 billion cubic metres (4.6×1010 cubic feet) of natural gas in Ukraine in 2018.[9]

In Kazakhstan, the company has provided drilling services to KazMunayGas and its subsidiaries, including at the Urikhtau gas field.[27] In Italy, Burisma develops three geothermal power projects in partnership with Gesto Investimento e Gestão.[27]

Burisma's subsidiary Esko-Pivnich operates in the Kharkiv Oblast, and Pari operates in Western Ukraine (Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi oblasts).[28] KUB-Gas operates in Luhansk Oblast,[6] GasOilInvest in Poltava Oblast,[21] and Nadragasvydobuvannya in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.[29] Burisma also owned KrymTopEnergoServis, a company which leased three gas deposits in Crimea.[15][28][30] However, after annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, KrymTopEnergoServis ceased operation as Burisma subsidiary.[30]

Corporate matters

Ownership

Burisma Holdings is owned by Brociti Investments Limited, a Cyprus-based company owned by Ukrainian former politician and businessman Mykola Zlochevsky. Zlochevsky was minister of natural resources under Viktor Yanukovych, the president of Ukraine.[31] Brociti Investments acquired Burisma Holdings in 2011.[32] Before that acquisition, Mykola Zlochevsky and Mykola Lisin each owned a 50% interest in Burisma Holdings.[12][32][33] Lisin, a Ukrainian politician, died in a traffic accident in 2011.[33]

Management
Aleksander Kwaśniewski, former President of the Republic of Poland, was appointed to the board in January 2014.[34][35]

Taras Burdeinyi is the chief executive officer of Burisma Holdings,[1][11] and Alan Apter is chairman of the board of directors.[2][3] As of 14 October 2019, the members of the board of directors, in order of seniority, are Alan Apter, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Joseph Cofer Black, Karina Zlochevska, Christina Sofocleous, Riginos Charalampous, and Marina Pericleous.[2][3] Aleksander Kwaśniewski, former president of Poland, joined the board in January 2014.[34][35] In 2017, Joseph Cofer Black, former director of the Counterterrorism Center of the Central Intelligence Agency (1999–2002) in the George W. Bush administration and former Ambassador-at-Large for counter-terrorism (2002–2004), was appointed to the board.[36] Karina Zlochevska, daughter of Mykola Zlochevskiy, was also appointed in February 2016.[2][3]

In April 2014, Devon Archer, a former senior adviser to the John Kerry 2004 presidential campaign, and Hunter Biden, an attorney and the son of then-US vice president Joe Biden, joined the board.[34][37] Archer left the company in 2018[38] and Hunter Biden left in April 2019, when his term as a director expired.[9]

Financial results

Burisma Holdings does not disclose its financial results.[9][17] It has been calculated, based on a minimal natural gas price, that the company's revenue in 2018 may have totaled at least US$400 million.[9]

Investigations

In April 2014, the Serious Fraud Office of the United Kingdom launched a money laundering investigation against Zlochevsky and accounts of Burisma Holdings and its parent Brociti Investments at the London branch of BNP Paribas containing US$23 million were frozen. That money was transferred as a result of complex transactions by a company controlled by a Ukrainian businessman Serhiy Kurchenko, a subject of the European Union restrictive measures.[39] When the Ukrainian prosecutor general's office failed to provide documents needed for the investigation, a British court in January 2015 dropped the case and ordered to unfreeze the assets.[40] In September 2015, then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt gave a speech in which he called out Ukrainian prosecutors for failing to cooperate with the investigation.[40]

Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) have conducted in total 15 investigations on Burisma's owner Zlochevsky.[41] In 2016, former Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko accused Burisma subsidiaries of conspiracy and tax evasion of about one billion hryvnias (US$70 million) in 2014–2015, but later during investigation subsidiaries of Burisma were not mentioned.[42] Tax audit of Esko-Pivnich by the State Fiscal Service found some violations in 2016. As a result, 50 million hryvnias (US$1.9 million) of additional taxes was paid to eliminate criminal charges.[42] In total, Burisma paid additional 180 million hryvnias (US$7.44 million) of taxes to avoid further criminal proceedings.[9][25] A criminal investigation was conducted if natural resources extraction licenses were issued to Burisma subsidiaries legally during the period Zlochevsky held government office. Although violations of the procedure were established by NABU, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office missed procedural deadlines for a lawsuit and the case for nullifying licenses was dismissed by the court.[42] In October 2019, Prosecutor General Ruslan Riaboshapka announced that all 15 investigation cases will be reviewed.[41]

gollark: I'm quite confident that the majority of user-facing ~~ones~~ computer systems have most of the development effort invested in random applications software which doesn't need to be hyperoptimized.
gollark: The top end grows, but most applications actually aren't that.
gollark: Computers are ridiculously powerful and more than capable of running most general purpose things anyone cares about very fast, if those things are sanely implemented. We know this because they can continue sort of usably working despite JS and such.
gollark: They're already very fast. Unless you're doing some very time sensitive data processing you can afford bounds checks and such in your code.
gollark: In most situations faster computers cost less than broken software.

See also

References
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  2. "Board of Directors". Burisma Holdings. Retrieved 14 October 2019.
  3. Van der Made, Jan (25 September 2019). "White House memo confirms Trump asked Ukraine to investigate Biden". Radio France Internationale. Retrieved 14 October 2019.
  4. Kim, Lucian (4 October 2019). "What To Know About The Ukrainian Company At The Heart Of Trump's Biden Allegations". NPR. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  5. "Ukraine Gas Upstream: Opportunities down the road" (PDF). National Investment Council. 2017. pp. 13–14. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  6. "Burisma acquiring 70% in KUB-Gas for $30 mln". Interfax-Ukraine. 1 February 2016. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  7. "Микола Злочевський купує британську газову компанію" [Mykola Zlochevsky buys a British gas company]. Investory News (in Ukrainian). 19 April 2019. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  8. "Burisma планирует построить установку по производству LPG мощностью 50 тыс. тонн/год" [Burisma plans to build a plant for the production of LPG with a capacity of 50 thousand tons / year]. Interfax-Ukraine (in Russian). 21 May 2019. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
  9. Polityuk, Pavel; Golubkova, Katya (24 September 2019). "Factbox: Burisma, the obscure Ukrainian gas company at the heart of U.S. political row". Reuters. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  10. Bullough, Oliver (12 April 2017). "The money machine: how a high-profile corruption investigation fell apart". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  11. Bourdein, Taras (6 November 2014). "Мы зарабатываем $15-20 на тысяче кубометров газа—Burisma Holdings" [We make $15–20 per thousand cubic meters of gas—Burisma Holdings]. Delo (in Russian). Retrieved 14 October 2019.
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