Russia's second-largest oil producer Lukoil’s Chairman Mr Ravil Maganov death on 1 September 2022, probably under suspicious circumstances as per Western media reports, has brought back in focus several such incidents in 2022, reported in Western media, with senior officials connected to oil & gas industry in Russia
January - Mr Leonid Shulman Head of Transport Service at Gazprom Invest
February – Mr Alexander Tyulyakov Deputy GD of Gazprom’s Treasury
March –Mr Mikhail Watford, UK based Ukraine born Oil & Gas Oligarch
April - Mr Vladislav Avaev Former Vice-President of Gazprombank
April – Mr Sergei Protoseni Former Deputy Chairman of Novatek
May - Mr Alexander Subbotin, Former top manager of LUKOIL
July - Mr Yuri Voronov of Astra-Shipping, a contractor on Gazprom's Arctic Projects
September - Mr Ravil Maganov Chairman of LUKOIL
On 30 January that the body of Mr Leonid Shulman, 60, Head of Transport Service at Gazprom Invest one of the top managers of Gazprom Invest, was found in in the bathroom of a cottage in a gated community, Village of Leninsky in Vyborgsky district north of Saint Petersburg in Leningrad region, with stabbing wounds.
In February, Mr Alexander Tyulakov, 61, Deputy General Director of Gazprom’s Financial & Security wing, was found dead in his mansion in the same gated community, Village of Leninsky in Vyborgsky district north of Saint Petersburg in Leningrad region, the day after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, in an apparent suicide but reports suggest he had been badly beaten shortly before he took his own life.
In March, Mr Mikhail Watford, 67, UK based Ukraine born oligarch who had changed his name from Tolstosheya after moving to the UK in early 2000 with Estonian wife Ms Jane, and had made his fortune in oil and gas after the demise of the Soviet Union, was found dead at his home in Portnall Drive in exclusive Wentworth Estate in Virginia Water in Surrey in UK under unexplained circumstances
In April, Mr Vladislav Avayev, 51, a former Kremlin official & Vice President for Gazprombank, appeared to have taken his own life after killing his wife Yelenam 47 & daughter Maria 13. Initial reports had suggested that Mr Avayev shot his family before he turned the gun on himself.
In April, Mr Sergey Protosenya, 55, was found dead in Spain after appearing to kill his wife Natalia 33 and their teenage daughter Maria. He was a former Deputy Chairman of Novatek. Media reports suggested that Mr Protosenya’s death may have been an assassination staged to look like a suicide. He was found hanging outside in the garden of his home in Lloret de Mar in Spain's Catalonia region, with his wife Natalia & teenage daughter Maria on bad inside the villa with stab wounds.
In May, Mr Alexander Subbotin, 42, former top manager at Lukoil and owner of a shipping company was found dead in a shaman's home in Mytishchi, a city just northeast of Moscow. One theory surrounding his death is that he was poisoned by toad venom triggering a heart attack.
In July, Mr Yuri Voronov, 61, owner of Astra-Shipping that held lucrative contracts with Gazprom in the Arctic, was found shot dead floating in the swimming pool of his mansion in an elite village Sea Terraces close to St Petersburg, with a gunshot wound to the head. A pistol was said to have been found nearby, with several spent cartridges allegedly located at the bottom of the pool
In September, Mr Ravil Maganov, the chairman of Lukoil, fell out of a window at the Central Clinical Hospital, apparently by suicide as per Russian state media reports
Gazprom is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. Gazprom was created in 1989, when the Soviet Ministry of Gas Industry was converted to a corporation, becoming the first state-run corporate enterprise in the Soviet Union. As of 2019, with sales over USD 120 billion, it was ranked as the largest publicly listed natural gas company in the world and the largest company in Russia by revenue. Gazprom is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, transport, distribution and marketing, and power generation. Gazprom exports the gas through pipelines that the company builds and owns across Russia and abroad such as Nord Stream 1 and TurkStream and was about to commission Nord Stream 2 before war.
2021 – Sales RUB 10.2 trillion & Profit RUB 2.09 trillion (USD 29 billion)
Lukoil is a Russian multinational energy corporation headquartered in Moscow, specializing in the business of extraction, production, transport, and sale of petroleum, natural gas, and petroleum products. It was formed in 1991 when three state run, western Siberian companies named after the respective town in Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug that each was based in Langepasneftegaz, Urayneftegaz, and Kogalymneftegaz, merged. Its name is the combination of the acronym LUK, initials of the oil-producing cities of Langepas, Uray, Kogalym and the English word oil.
2021 – Sales RUB 9.4 trillion & Profit RUB 773 billion (USD 7 billion)
Novatek is Russia's second-largest natural gas producer behind Gazprom. The company was originally known as FIK Novafininvest. Novatek is based in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region in West Siberia, and maintains a sales office in Moscow.
2021 – Sales RUB 1.2 trillion & Profit RUB 412 billion (USD billion)
