Wagner. First oil

That's why Russian mercenaries in Syria. Damascus concluded contracts for the development of oil and gas fields with Evgeny Prigozhin companies

The Russian company with a state of two people under the direction of yesterday’s student of a recovery will be engaged in geological exploration and prey of 250 billion cubic meters of gas in Syria. If anything, two assault detachments of the Wagner Group will help her.

In December 2019, the Syrian parliament adopted laws on the conclusion with two Russian companies for the development of three blocks of gas and oil fields. Their total area is at least 12 thousand square kilometers, and gas reserves, according to the Syrian side, are three quarters of the trillion cubic meters. The highlight in Russian counterparties. Among the oil workers, no one heard about Velada and Mercury companies that received serious contracts.

New Gazeta found an explanation of their success in the oil and gas business.

No surprises. Behind the nominal owners and leaders of companies is the structure of Concord, Evgeny Prigozhin.

What was given to Russian companies

The meeting of the Parliament of the Syrian Arab Republic took place on December 16, 2019. The message of the Parliamentary press service broadcasts RIA Novosti: bills have been adopted on concluding contracts for geological exploration and production of oil and gas with “two Russian oil companies”.

“Velada” receives “Block 23”, and “Mercury” - blocks 7 and 19.

The Minister of Oil and Gaza of Syria Ali Ganay explained that Block 23 is a gas deposit with an area of ​​2159 square meters. km north of Damascus, and Block 7 is an oil field with an area of ​​9531 square meters. km on the left bank of the Euphrates. The minister did not say anything about Block 7, but it is clear from the context that it is located near the 19th block 19. Gas reserves, according to Ganem, are at least 250 billion cubic meters on each block.

The mysterious "Velada"

Velada with the authorized capital of 10 thousand rubles was established in 2015 by Ekaterina Trofimova. In July 2018, Trofimova as the only participant in the company and general director was replaced by Daria Baranovskaya. According to Spark-Interfax, a paid employee in the company is only one. In 2015–2017, revenue in the accounting reports shown zero, in 2018 - 3.2 million rubles with a final net loss of 27 thousand rubles.

It was not possible to find any publicly accessible contacts of Velada - neither a phone, nor a site, nor email address. How is a company that has no experience in geological exploration and gas production, which has neither employees nor capital, manages to get a contract for potential 250 billion cubic meters of natural gas in Nemirny Syria - a riddle.

But the riddle has a simple solution if you know that Ekaterina Trofimova worked as an assistant manager in another company during the Velada leadership - Concord Management and Consulting, the window company Evgeny Prigozhin.

In the summer of 2018, having quit from Concord and transferring Velada Daria Baranovskaya, Trofimova left Russia and moved to the United States. There we got through to her.

Trofimova did not deny that her role in Velad was purely nominal and she for an additional reward fulfilled the request of the Concord accounting, issuing Velada.

Daria Baranovskaya failed to contact the current general director and “owner”. Baranovskaya headed Velada, while in the 5th year of the St. Petersburg Technological Institute.

The request for a conversation was transmitted to her close relative - also the general director of the company in Prigozhin’s structures, but there was no response to the call. Baranovskaya read the message on the social network, but did not respond.

"Mercury": canteens in Kamchatka and Syrian oil

The Mercury company, unlike Velada, is a serious business game. But in the past and in another field. In 2015-2018, Mercury annually concluded contracts with Voentorg worth 115–118 million rubles to provide military personnel in sanatoriums and at international events of the Ministry of Defense. Judging by the recruiting sites and arbitration production data, there were over a dozen canteens in Kamchatka in the Mercury Management: in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Vilyuchinsk, Elizovo and Paratunka. According to SPARK, the company worked more than a thousand people, and the revenue for 2018 amounted to 3.1 billion rubles.

The owner of the company registered in Moscow indicates Olga Kholodovich Petersburg, and the general director-Pavel Karasev from the Leningrad Region, while the well-known office of the company was located in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

Most of the Mercury phones indicated in the announcements of the recruitment of personnel, but we managed to get through to the former staff of the personnel department in Kamchatka. In her opinion, “Mercury” is no longer there, ”at least she said“ new ”, assuring that the company does not carry out any activities.

We did not find telephones, email or accounts on social networks of Karasev, as well as any information about a large catering manager with such a surname.

The Bolodovich account is VKontakte. The maintenance of the page does not quite correspond to the owner of a business with billions. She has not yet answered the request for a comment.

At that time, while in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, local workers believed that their company was not active, Mercury apparently changed the profile and took up exploration of deposits in Syria. Openly, there is a summary of the exploration specialist Ramil Bariev. He writes that he served as the managing director of Mercury from August 2017 to July 2018 and was engaged in “organizing work on the arrangement of geology, geophysics and development objects” in the Middle East. Bariev did not answer the letter of Novaya Gazeta.

Prigozhin’s connection with Mercury was established by the journalists of the “present time”. In May 2016, on the territory of the Yuntolovsky reserve, not far from Prigozhin’s residence in the village of New Versailles, the Robinson R-44 helicopter RA-06364 had an accident, the pilots were not injured. From the act of investigation, the MAC became known that the helicopter belonged to Mercury, which supplied products to Kamchatka for the Ministry of Defense.

“Present time” managed to contact one of the pilots, who said that his task “was to take Prigozhin or his wife at short distances within St. Petersburg and the surroundings.”

Why Prigozhin

“Cooperation with Mercury began as part of the protocol of the intergovernmental commission in Sochi in 2017,” RIA Novosti quoted the words of Syrian Minister Ali Ganem.

But Mercury is one of the many companies that the Prigozhin empire is visible, whether it is school and army food, construction, mining or Wagner group. The leading role in the Syrian project is played by the Euro Polis company. In December 2016, during the visit of the Syrian Minister Ganem to Moscow and a meeting with the Minister of Energy of Russia Alexander Novak, agreements were signed between the “Euro Polis” and the subordinate Ganya of the Syrian State Oil Corporation, according to which the Euro Polis (people who are better known under the brand of “Wagner PMC”) pledged combat operations to exempt oil and gas deposits In exchange for a quarter from the volume of subsequent production. According to Novaya Gazeta, this agreement was ratified by the Cabinet of Ministers of Syria in May 2017 and strictly executed. “Velada” and “Mercury”, apparently, is only part of many companies in the Syrian project.

The choice of the counterparty for the Syrian side was obvious: the contract for reconnaissance and development of deposits was received by the one who was able to recapture them and protect them with his own armed force.

Oil and gas price

According to our estimates, the cost of resources that Prigozhin’s structures monthly received in Syria in 2018 could amount to about $ 20 million. The volume of production in 2019 has not yet been specified.

The losses of the Wagner group in Syria in 2015-2019 are difficult to evaluate. It is reliably known about 8 dead in the fall of 2015 and about 25 dead in 2016. In 2017, at least 10 fighters of the group died, but perhaps more. The group suffered the most significant losses in February 2018 as a result of the blow of American aviation near Hisham: from 60 (according to minimal estimates) to 200 people died. About three times more people received various injuries and contusion, many remained disabled.

PS

The press service of Yevgeny Prigozhin told Novaya Gazeta that Velada and Mercury have nothing to do with it.