Gazprom Neft buys Kazakhstan fuel stations firm

Management of Gazprom Neft made a decision to approve the purchase of 100-percent stake in Kazakhstan’s Sanol Invest, RIA Novosti writes citing a message of the Russian company. The deal was the only point on the agenda of Gazprom Neft board on February 7.Sonol Invest owns 4 fuel stations in Kazakhstan: 3 in Astana and 1 in Akmola oblast. Gazprom Neft-Kazakhstan, the official dealer of Gazprom Neft in Kazakhstan, will be the buyer of Kazakhstan company.According to Kursiv magazine, Gazprom Neft-Kazakhstan owns 20 fuel stations in Almaty, Taldykorgan, Taraz, Turkestan, Saryagash, Issyk, Kentau, South-Kazakhstan and Zhambyl oblasts. It also has 10 regional representative offices in Astana, Almaty, Kostanai, Karaganda, Petropavlovsk, Pavlodar, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Semei, Shymkent and Taldykorgan.The company deals with wholesale, small-scale wholesale and retail sales of oil products from Omsk Refinery (Russia).Earlier Kursiv cited the company’s corporate magazine as writing that Gazprom Neft was planning to increase its fuel stations network in Kazakhstan 5-fold by 2020 and Almaty and Astana were the priority targets, as well as major cities in the north, east and south of the country.