[1] It was founded in 1987 as a subdivision of the Kirishinefteorgsintez refinery, based in Kirishi, Leningrad Oblast, to conduct external economic activity of the latter, but in 1991 became independent state-owned enterprise headed by Gennady Timchenko.
[2][3] Vadim Evseevich Somov (Russian: Вадим Евсеевич Сомов) was the general director of KiNex.
[4] In 1990 Kirishineftekhimexport together with Volgotanker, the Dutch firm Sadko[a] and the state-owned Sovfintrade (Russian: государственные «СовФинТрейд»)[b] and several individuals founded joint venture Urals Ltd.[9][10] Its Finnish subdivision Urals Finland Oy became the main foreign customer of Kirishineftekhimexport, as it required much less efforts and bureaucratic burden to export oil to a single company.
In 1990s Kirishineftekhimexport also became successful in exporting oil to Estonia, which in 1990 was still a part of the Soviet Union.
In the same year financial and investment projects of KiNEx were transferred to the KiNEx Invest JSC, owned by Smirnov, Katkov, Malov and Timchenko (by 25% each) and headed by Director General Yury Yerofeyev.