For Belarusian oilmen, September’s calendar is full of important dates. September 6 marks the Day of Workers of the Oil, Gas and Fuel Industry, while September 14 is the starting point of the history of “Belorussneft” as a state production association. It was on this day in 2006 that the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, signed the decree “On the Creation of the State Production Association ‘Belorussneft’.” BELTA reported in “Belorussneft” about the company’s history, the development of its gas‑station network ahead of the professional holiday, and the 20th anniversary of the state production association.

The decree brought together scattered assets into a single vertically integrated complex; the company now includes separate enterprises for the sale of petroleum products, machinery manufacturing, and agribusiness, the company reminded in “Belorussneft.”

“The decision of the head of state was dictated by a systematic approach to assessing the capabilities of the State Production Association ‘Belorussneft.’ This was preceded by a comprehensive study of the technical, technological, and human resources of a large group of oilmen, a 40‑year history of successful work in the Prypyat oil and gas province and in foreign projects. Alexander Lukashenko, when making this important decision, believed that oilmen would not only deliver hydrocarbons but also ensure high‑quality service to consumers of petroleum products, and that the branded ‘Belorussneft’ gas‑station network would become the country’s calling card,” the company said.

As the company noted, for the development of a multi‑profile enterprise, building its own gas stations became one of the important reserves. “Today the network includes about 580 modern gas stations, most of which are multi‑complexes. It is the largest network in the country, employing around 10,000 people. Gas stations today are the architecture of the future, integrated into familiar landscapes. Everything is thought out. And there is pride in how a fuel giant can look in the 21st century. Many people can hardly imagine that, at the end of the 1990s, along the roads there were small kiosks in blue‑red tones. Unremarkable and certainly not decorating the landscape,” the company emphasized.

Deputy General Director for hydrocarbon supply and product sales, Sergey Kamornikov added that at the time several hundred gas stations, owned by various enterprises, began to come under the umbrella of “Belorussneft.” “The President foresaw that the oil‑product supply system urgently needed a strong leader; otherwise some facilities would go bankrupt and close, while others would be bought by foreign operators. We (Belorussneft) were mainly engaged in wholesale fuel sales. We sold it to future subsidiaries.

Yuri Onanchenko also worked on the task of systematizing these enterprises. He became a specialist in the oil products logistics and gas stations department in 2007, and from 2010 to 2023 he was the head of the oil product supply management of the central apparatus. A decree was signed, the subsidiary enterprises were accepted, and we understood how different they all were. There was no single management, no common approaches to building gas stations or reconstructing oil depots. The Volgograd Design Institute conducted an audit of the subsidiaries, and out of a possible 10 points they scored only 2.9. The tank fleet was worn out to the limit, not meeting the growing safety standards, including fire safety and sanitary and epidemiological regulations. “Window” refueling stations, mechanical dispensers, endless queues, stops of gasoline release during tanker unloading. There were no funds or personnel to improve the situation in this area. Therefore a decree was issued — the state saw that an operator was needed who could centralize management and bear responsibility for supplying fuel to the entire republic, Yuri Onanchenko noted.

According to him, at that time it was necessary to make the disparate objects into a single whole. Of course, it was a colossal effort by the teams: gathering information, systematizing it, writing technical specifications. We solved issues of equipment procurement, personnel training. A huge amount of work. For example, from the moment a ready-made software product arrived at a subsidiary, it could take years of testing, refinement, and decision-making at the state level before its full implementation, because legislation might not align with our ideas, Yuri Onanchenko said.

He added that much of what was eventually implemented in the oil product supply system of “Belorusneft” was innovative for the entire country. For example, accounting and monitoring of oil products, automatic gas stations, electronic sealing of tanker trucks, nighttime fuel draining, collection of vapors from refueling stations and transporting them to bases. These technologies were breakthrough at the time and have not lost their relevance today.

As noted by Olga Fedorovich, deputy general director of Belorussneft for ideological and social work, motivation and personnel development, the large‑scale reforms of the oil product supply system became a strategically sound and highly effective management decision.

"For our subsidiaries, we implemented a unified standard structure, established clear staffing norms for employees and workers, and launched a unified motivation system covering all types and amounts of payroll payments. We codified standard social benefits and compensations for collective agreements, introduced new training approaches that allow us to quickly and at a high level train thousands of employees in the shortest possible time, and established clear standard career paths. Moreover, we introduced unified personnel evaluation methods, IT testing, a single corporate events calendar, and our shared museum complex. The operation of all these tools, including the active work of the youth council, provided a powerful synergistic effect and directly contributed to the cohesion of our multi‑thousand‑strong workforce," — concluded Olga Fedorovich.

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