However, this expansion was largely as a result of debt from both Russian and European lenders, and by the late 2010s, the refinery was financially dependent on regular borrowing and prepayments from customers.

[1] Eventually, the components for the refinery were sold by the Russian Fund for Federal Property following an internal review of Transneft's business, which determined that refining was outside the scope of its operations.

An additional option to purchase a 25% stock holding in May 2016 was held by Vladimir Kalashnikov, a friend of then-Governor of Tyumen Oblast and the current Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin.

[12] Both Sobyanin and Transneft fully endorsed and provided assistance with the building of Antipinsky, the latter was particularly interested in the prospect of a refinery located on the trunk oil pipelines adjacent to both major rail tracks and highways.

[11] Construction of the refinery was completed two years after it commenced, with the first phase of the facility beginning operations in November 2006 with a capacity of 400,000 tons of oil per annum.

[17] A British court issued a worldwide order to freeze $251 million of Antipinsky's assets and prevent the refinery from selling vacuum gas oil to other companies as a result of a lawsuit by VTB Commodities Trading.

[18] In response to the order, a spokesman for Antipinsky said: “Unfortunately, in 2019 a string of traders, including VTB Commodities Trading, in violation of agreements that had been previously reached, stopped providing advances for the purchase of petroleum products.

[17] Mazurov was arrested on July 13, 2019, at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow on suspicion of assaulting a prostitute and embezzling loans from Sberbank, Promsvyazbank and Absolut Bank worth in excess of $3 billion, although this value was later downgraded to a total of $30 million.

[1] At an auction held on May 18, 2020, Antipinsky was sold to the only bidder, RusInvest, a company controlled by the Ukrainian businessman Anatoly Yablonsky, who previously fled Ukraine following charges of tax fraud.

[1] That same year, the refinery owners announced that contracts had been signed with Gunvor, Trafigura and Vitol for the long-term supply of naphtha and diesel from Baltic Sea ports.