Seznam Zprávy: Company with opaque owners to supply oil to Czech state reserves

The Administration of State Material Reserves (SSHR) has signed a contract worth more than one billion crowns to buy oil from a company whose owners are not transparent. Seznam Zprávy reported today. SSHR chairman Pavel Švagr said his organisation had vetted the winner of the tender to replenish oil reserves, Cyprus-based Normeston Trading Limited, and had not broken the law.

„We verified the owners as required by the Public Procurement Act. We also asked several state authorities to cooperate on this, to rule out the possibility that any of the owners might be on sanctions lists, for example,“ Švagr said.

He said Normeston also met the qualification criteria, as it supplies oil to Hungary’s MOL and Slovakia’s Slovnaft. The state will pay for the oil only after it is delivered; if the company fails to fulfil the agreement, it will face penalties.

According to the website, the company is controlled by a network of nine companies and funds in Cyprus, Hungary, Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands. Working with the anti-corruption organisation Transparency International (TI), the website identified four nominal owners, and SSHR confirmed that it considers these four to be listed in the ownership structure.