The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) has investigated Russian capital accumulation over several sectors. As per the IDFI report, there is scarce evidence of Russian ownership in operators within the Georgian oil market beyond Lukoil and Gulf, which are included in the top five retail operators and share 59% of the respective market in Georgia. In contrast, there has been no detectable sign of Russian business ownership in the natural gas sector (Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI).
Lukoil Georgia is owned by the Russian Lukoil Public JSC, which was sanctioned by the USA in January 2022, thereby limiting the company’s oil projects. According to company data, it operates 57 stations in Georgia, 21 of which are in Tbilisi. The company also actively participates in Georgian public tenders, where the total value of contracts signed between state agencies and Lukoil Georgia constitutes over 200 mln. GEL.
Lukoil has moreover been associated with the former prosecutor of Georgia, Otar Partskhaladze, who served as their deputy director in 2017. Previous journalistic investigations have also revealed that potentially corrupt oil transportation schemes directly involved Otar Partskhaladze and Lukoil.
Another major player on the Georgian oil market is Petrokas Energy Georgia, which has associations with the Russian company Rosneft and with Davit Iakobashvili, a Georgian businessman. Notably, Petrokas is a significant stakeholder on the Georgian oil market and it trades
oil products. It also holds shares in several oil companies, such as Channel Energy (Poti) Limited (the Poti oil terminal), San Petrolium Georgia (a chain of Gulf gas stations), and Gulf Aviation.
Channel Energy (Poti) Limited owns a 32.67% share in the Poti oil terminal, while the remainingshareholders are registered in the Virgin Islands. Moreover, Gulf Aviation supplies the international airports in Tbilisi, Kutaisi, and Batumi, and its fuel supplies are consumed by several major airlines operating in Georgia. Lastly, San Petrolium Georgia is included within the top five players on the local oil market (Institute for Development of Freedom of Information.
Until 2022, a 49% stake of Petrokas Energy Georgia belonged to Rosneft. In May 2022, following sanction packages related to the Russian war in Ukraine, Vano Nakaidze, CEO of Petrokas, acquired shares from the Russian Rosneft, removing notable Russian presence from the company. A little
later in 2022, however, War and Sanctions, a Ukrainian platform, communicated that the parent company (Petrokas Energy International Limited) and its founder (David Iakobashvili) were also linked with the Russian regime (Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), 2023.
Considering the ownership structure of Lukoil Georgia, alongside the previous Russian associations with Petrokas Energy Georgia, one can thus trace notable ownership-related influence within the Georgian oil and gas sector.
