Business activity

Upon leaving his governmental post, Yuri Shafranik devoted himself to business activities. In 1997, in Moscow, he founded and took charge of the Central Fuel Company. Over a short period of time it became a leader in the regional wholesale petroleum products market of the day.

Central Fuel Company was one of the participants in the international project Inam. The work was performed in partnership with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, transnational chemical and oil company Amoco, and British conglomerate Monument Oil & Gas. Later, the project was sold to Shell for $18 million.

Three years later, in 2000, Yuri Shafranik founded the international group SNG and became the Chairman of its Board of Directors. The group focused primarily at development of oil and gas projects worldwide in partnership with other Russian, western or local institutional investors. From the day it was founded until 2019, when SNG group completed its active investment phase, it implemented a number of large-scale projects in the energy industry.

Under Yuri Shafranik's management, the group successfully carried out a broad range of projects in Azerbaijan, Algeria, the United Kingdom, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Columbia, Russia, and other locations. The group's projects attracted over $10 billion in investments, and the net return realized on investor's capital was $6 billion. The total volume of commercial stock obtained with SNG's participation was 2 billion tons of crude oil equivalent. All of the projects the group carried out were for-profit; there was no direct governmental participation or state funding.

At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF’17)

In 2001-2003, SNG group, together with petrochemical conglomerates Total and Anglo-Siberian Oil Company (ASOC), participated in the development of the Vankor oil and gas field located in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. Today, Vankor is one of Rosneft's critically important industrial projects.

In 2006, one of the group's subsidiaries, SNG Overseas, was acquired by the British oil and gas company Emerald Energy for $7.3 million plus a 10% stake in Emerald Energy. In 2009, SNG group sold its share in Emerald Energy to the Chinese petrochemical company Sinochem for $878 million.

Between 2003 and 2008, Yuri Shafranik also held the office of a director at First Calgary Petroleums – a Canadian company engaged in exploration, development, and production of oil and natural gas in North America and the Middle East. The company was later sold for $923 million to the Italian giant Eni SpA.

In 2007, Uzbekneftegas entered into a production sharing agreement concerning the oil fields of Central Ustyurt and South-West Gissar with SNG Vostok, a 100% subsidiary of SNG group. In March of 2008 SNG Vostok was bought by Lukoil for $580 million.

Since 2019 Yuri Shafranik focused his efforts on activities outside the SNG group which completed its active investment phase.