MOSCOW, May 20 (RAPSI) – Russia’s Antipinsky oil refinery has filed a petition for its own bankruptcy, RAPSI has learnt from the Tyumen Regional Commercial Court. 

The petition was filed several weeks after the High Court of Justice in London granted a lawsuit by VTB Commodities Trading to freeze the refinery’s assets worth 225 million euros. The ruling extended to the Antipinsky property in the Siberian city of Tyumen and petroleum reserves stored at the tanker Polar Rock in the northern port of Murmansk. Moreover, the defendant was prohibited from selling its vacuum gasoil without the sanction of VTB Commodities Trading before the case hearing.

As part of this claim, the trading house filed an injunction application with the Commercial Court of Murmansk Region. However, the Russian court refused to seize oil products at the tanker Polar Rock worth 197.1 million euros upon the VTB Commodities Trading petition.

Antipinsky is a private, not a state-run refinery which capacity exceeds 9 million tonnes per year. The refinery occupies its rightful place among the largest players of the Russian oil refining industry, forming the Urals and West-Siberian oil refinery market, and is known abroad, the company’s official website says.

Reportedly, in recent months the refinery has repeatedly halted its operations because of a cash crunch to pay for crude oil supplies.