On October 21, 2025, Reuters published an article about the delivery of Russian oil to Kulevi. The incident raised questions about whether the Kulevi Oil Refinery is part of a scheme to evade sanctions imposed on Russia. In addition, questions were once again raised about why Georgia is purchasing Russian oil and transferring money to Russia against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

What happened in Kulevi

According to Reuters, on October 6, the Russian company Rusneft delivered 105,000 tons of oil from the port of Novorossiysk to the newly built refinery in Kulevi using the sea tanker Kayseri. The cargo was received by the Kulevi oil terminal, which is located 5 kilometers from the refinery.

The Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia responded to this fact, confirming the entry of Russian oil and noting that international sanctions do not apply to the importing ship, its owner, as well as to the companies sending and receiving the cargo.

At the time of sending and receiving of the oil cargo, sanctions were indeed not imposed directly on the sending company and the ship. However, the ship was sanctioned soon after, while the situation with their owners is also problematic:

Rusneft – Although the exact identity and distribution of Rusneft shareholders is currently unknown, most recent information available in public sources indicates that the company may still be ultimately owned and controlled by its original founder, Russian oligarch Mikhail Gutseriev (through his brother, other family members, and their companies). Mikhail Gutseriev was first hit by Western sanctions back in 2021 for his ties to the Belarusian dictator Lukashenko. His brother and Rusneft shareholder Sait-Salam Gutseriev is also sanctioned.

Incidentally, it was a company owned by the Gurseriev brothers to whom Bidzina Ivanishvili sold his real estate assets in Moscow for $982.5 million in 2012, after entering Georgian politics.

Update: Two weeks following the publication of this article, the British Government imposed financial sanctions on Russneft on December 18, 2025.

Tanker Kaiseri – 3 weeks after the oil was brought to Kulevi, on October 24, 2025, the tanker Kaiseri was placed under EU sanctions. The tanker was added to the 560 ships sanctioned by the EU, which are collectively known as the Shadow Fleet and help Russia sell oil products.

The following is what the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Service writes about the tanker and its ultimate owner:

“The tanker is owned by Kayseri Shipping S.A. (Panama, Panama Folio No. 155749742). The founder of Kayseri Shipping S.A. is Hector Varela De Leon. On July 30, 2025, the United States imposed sanctions on Hector Varela De Leon for his activities in the oil sector of the Iranian economy. Hector Varela de Leon is linked to the incorporation and management of shell companies that are part of a vast shipping empire controlled by sanctioned Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the son of Ali Shamkhani, chief political advisor to Iran's supreme leader. Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani's shipping empire consists of a huge fleet of ships, ship management companies, and shell companies that launder billions of dollars in profits from the global sale of Iranian and Russian crude oil and petroleum products, mostly to buyers in China.”

Who owns and operates the Kulevi refinery

Construction of the Kulevi oil refinery began in October 2024 in the village of Kulevi, Khobi Municipality, Georgia.

The initial decision to build an oil refinery in Kulevi was made in 2012. An investment agreement was signed between the Azerbaijani SOCAR and the Georgian government, but the project was not implemented. After that, the investor changed several times. Finally, the construction of the refinery was started by Black Sea Petroleum LLC.

Black Sea Petroleum LLC was founded in October 2022. The company's main activity is oil refining and sales. Until December 2024, Maka Asatiani owned 70% of the company, and Trade Stone Iberia LLC owned 30%. In turn, 70% of Trade Stone Iberia LLC was owned by Maka Asatiani, and 30% by Sofio Tavartkiladze. On December 3, 2024, MK Capital LLC, which belongs to Maka Asatian, became a 100% owner of Black Sea Petroleum LLC.

In February 2025, the owner of 29.34% of Black Sea Petroleum LLC became Dunamis LLC. The owner of 100% of this company is David Potskhveria. In exchange for the share, Dunamis LLC replenished the capital of Black Sea Petroleum LLC with 911 million rubles, or 28.4 million GEL. As a result, the share capital of Black Sea Petroleum LLC increased to 96.8 million GEL.

Since February, the CEO of Black Sea Petroleum has been David Potskhveria. The members of the company's Supervisory Board are Vakhtang Chakhnashvili, Konstantine Gogelia (Maka Asatiani's husband), and former Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Levan Davitashvili. Levan Davitashvili resigned from his position as Minister on June 24, 2025 and joined Black Sea Petroleum on September 26.

Is the refinery operational?

It is unknown whether the Kulevi refinery has already started refining oil. The online media organization Batumelebi tried to find out in early November of this year. Representatives of Black Sea Petroleum LLC and the Georgian Development Fund did not respond to journalists, only the Khobi Municipality City Hall told them that trial works are underway and the refinery has not yet been officially opened.

Who invested money in the refinery and what are the company’s plans

The refinery’s capacity is planned to be 1.2 million tons per year at the first stage, which will gradually increase to 3 million tons. The refinery is to be built in 4 stages and a total of 600 million dollars are planned to be spent on construction. The investment volume of the first stage of construction is 130 million dollars.

The State Investment Fund - Georgian Development Fund (formerly Partnership Fund) is spending 5 million dollars. Three commercial banks: Cartu Bank, Basisbank and Khaliqbank are financing the construction of the factory with a total of 45 million dollars. In other words, the first phase of the project is financed by the state fund and commercial banks with a total of 50 million dollars in loans.

Cartu Bank is owned by the charitable foundation Cartu, the ultimate beneficiary of which is Bidzina Ivanishvili. Basisbank is owned by the Chinese company Xinjiang Hualing Industry & Trade Group Co. Khaliqbank is owned by the People's Bank of Kazakhstan, which belongs to Timur and Dinara Kulibayev.

Russian connections of Kulevi refinery owners

The ultimate owners of the Kulevi Refinery are husband and wife Maka Asatiani and Konstantin Gogelia. Maka Asatiani is a well-known Georgian designer. According to the Business Research Group, Konstantin Gogelia has been operating in Russia for years and owns a number of companies. He is the founder of Nefteresurs and Arctic Bunker. Gogelia’s companies operate terminals in Murmansk and Novorossiysk. His companies are engaged in wholesale trade and transportation of solid, liquid and gaseous fuels and similar products.

Connections with the Russian military – The Russian media project Agency (Агентство), based on an investigation by the media organization Project (Проект), revealed that Maka Asatiani’s son (from her first marriage), Kakhi Zhordania, was involved in the oil business in Russia. From 2016 to 2023, he owned the Russian company Oil Energy Group. Since 2018, Kakhi Zhordania owns a 25% stake in the company SDO-Logistic (СДО-Логистик), where his partner (owner of 51%) is Sergey Alekseev. Sergey Alekseev is the son of Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseev, First Deputy Chief of the Main Directorate (GRU) of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. According to the article, Sergey Alekseev worked at Rusneft before engaging in his own business activities.

Photo: Batumelebi - Full article available here.

Pro-Russian editorial policy – ​​Maka Asatiani and her husband’s positive attitude towards Russia became apparent in 2014, shortly after the Georgian Dream came to power, when Konstantine Gogelia demanded that leading journalists at the family-owned Maestro TV company change their editorial policy in line with Russian interests. Due to these and similar demands, many journalists left the channel in protest. Transparency International Georgia successfully defended the interests of several of them in court.

Sanctions evasion scheme?

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, questions are increasingly being raised about whether Georgia is evading oil-related sanctions imposed on Russia by Western countries.

In January 2025, the investigative journalism project Ifact published an investigation looking into the export of Russian oil from Georgia, which is labeled as Georgian product and the Russian origin of the oil is not visible. This may be due to the mixing of oil from different countries or a change in the oil’s origin document.

According to official data from Geostat, in 2021, 26 thousand tons of oil and oil products were exported from Georgia (of which 8 tons were re-exported). In 2024, exports amounted to 139 thousand tons (re-exports of 100 million tons), and in 10 months of 2025, 109 thousand tons (re-exports of 80 million tons). According to Ifact, international foreign trade portals reflect larger volumes of oil exports from Georgia than are shown in Geostat statistics.

The influential British think tank Foreign Policy Center has also raised questions about the risks of laundering the origin of Russian oil in Georgia in various ways.

According to an investigative story broadcast by TV channel Formula on November 1, 2025, the investigative journalist claims to have obtained a confidential report held by the US government, which speaks about the risks of sanction evasion in relation to the Kulevi refinery and its owner. According to the report (as cited by the journalist):

“The construction of the Kulevi oil refinery will help to circumvent Western sanctions on Russian oil products… Sanctioned oil products will enter Georgia and then the documents will be changed as if this oil fuel was processed and produced at the Kulevi oil refinery.”

According to the journalist, the confidential report mentions Kote Gogelia as a Russian businessman with close ties to the Russian military services. The report also mentions the alteration of the certificate of origin for Russian oil by a company owned by Kote Gogelia’s family.

Ultimately, the Kulevi oil refinery increases the likelihood of real or fictitious processing of Russian oil in Georgia and its export as a Georgian product. Western countries may see this as a scheme to circumvent oil related sanctions imposed by them on Russia.