In September 1996 the company, for the first time, bought 20 thousand tons of crude oil to process in the Kirishinefteorgsintez refinery.

On 13 October 1998, company president Dmitry Filippov died from wounds three days after the explosion of a radio-controlled mine.

[6][7] In 1996 he took part in the elections for the position of St. Petersburg governor, and as of 1998 was an authorized delegate of Gennady Seleznyov, Speaker of the State Duma.

[8] On February 16, 1999 Yury Shutov, a deputy in St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly and a prominent businessman, was arrested on charges of having organized this and other contract murders.

[12] In May 2002, Gryzlov, sent a commission of inquiry to Saint Petersburg to investigate allegations of corruption in the city's gasoline market.