Media attack on SOCAR has signs of a paid campaign against the brand - study

Last week, the SOCAR gas station chain was at the center of a major media and social media attack. Reports in the public domain indicate that the campaign against the brand in the Ukrainian fuel market was paid for. UNN reports this with reference to a study by Naftogaz. 

The media attack was launched after Sokar Ukraine Trading House LLC won a tender to supply 10,000 tons of diesel fuel to Ukrzaliznytsia (July 19, 2024) for UAH 529 million and signed a contract (August 6, 2024).

Participants of the tender for the supply of 10 thousand tons of diesel fuel for UZ dated 19.07.2024. 

The media reported that the importer was receiving fuel  produced from Russian oil. The false report about raw materials from Russia  was then picked up by the media, telegram channels, and Facebook -  there were about 50 publications. 

In general, this was not critical for reputational risks, Naftogaz said. 

It is important to note that the diesel fuel resource from the pipe that SOCAR receives through PPEK LLC was not used to supply the railroad. Fuel for UZ from SOKAR came from another direction, mainly from the South. The company even paints it at its own expense at the request of UZ, right in the Danube port.

On the eve of the next UZ tender, SOCAR and the announcement of the results on August 16-19, it faced a new wave of criticism. At first, it was accused of supplying "Hungarian fuel made from Russian oil," and after Putin's visit to Baku, the rhetoric changed to "Putin-Gazprom-SOKAR.

On the eve of the announcement of the results of the UZ tender, Putin's visit to Azerbaijan became a gift for the customers and executors of the slander against SOCAR"

According to him, only the message on Gazprom's website about the development of relations with SOCAR (unlike the Russians, the Azerbaijanis did not promote this visit, which was essentially requested by the Ukrainian side) became the basis for the final and powerful third wave of negativity against Azerbaijani business in Ukraine.

 "We found that by the afternoon of August 20, so-called opinion leaders on social media were calling to avoid the SOCAR gas station network, with several bloggers with large coverage almost simultaneously posting about the boycott, then in the evening and the next day, negative and offensive messages were recorded, including about a possible arson of SOCAR gas stations," Sirenko said.

Participants of the tender for the supply of 10 thousand tons of diesel fuel for UZ dated 08/14/2024

According to Naftogaz, the simultaneous appearance of identical texts on social media indicates that the attack on SOCAR was ordered. In addition, the publication's media contacts talk about generous fees for posts. "One well-known ex-racer received $3 thousand for a short message against Azerbaijan and the SOCAR network - high price!", an advertising agency representative told. 

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According to Naftogaz, from August 19 to 21, there were about five hundred mentions of the SOCAR brand in the Ukrainian Internet space, of which 36% were on Facebook, 22% on X (Twitter), and 17% on Telegram. The rest were on YouTube, tiktok, etc.

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"Unfortunately, media killing is a widespread practice in the Ukrainian fuel market, especially for companies with retail operations. In this segment, brand integrity is a particularly sensitive issue," said Oleksandr Sirenko.

Recent examples are the attacks on BRSM-Nafta over allegedly low-quality fuel in 2021 with a telling ending (court cases are still ongoing). During the war, in 2023, the UPG network was reportedly attacked  : the company was associated with ties to Belarusians. At the time, the accusations had a minor impact on the brand. Later, a year later, the trader won a court case against the perpetrator of the media attack, the Obozrevatel publication, but according to market participants, the company could have paid about UAH 6 million to the organizer of the attack on UPG over a year and a half, fearing further negative publicity.

While the effect of the organized hate against SOCAR is not in favor of the customer, the performers and... the SOCAR network itself are making money. Generous high prices for the posts were paid to the couch potatoes (although it is believed that the self-proclaimed experts were slandering for the sake of likes and ego), SOCAR Ukraine LLC is finishing the shipment of diesel fuel to the railroad next week, and the chain itself did not see a decrease in fuel sales and even recorded an increase in revenue in stores on August 20-22.

The main question of who benefited from causing negative publicity for SOCAR remains open, according to Naftogaz . 

 But, obviously, the customer will be exposed later, given the company's close geopolitical ties with the Ukrainian authorities.  However, for the sake of cleanliness, transparency and civilized development of the fuel market in Ukraine, it is extremely necessary to disclose the contractors, who, according to preliminary estimates, spent more than $30 thousand last week alone.