After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the rapid exodus of global energy giants from the Russian market, a vast gap opened up in the global oil trade—high-risk but extraordinarily profitable. Most companies chose to avoid operations that might violate sanctions or drag them into “toxic” schemes. Yet some traders continued working with Russian suppliers.
Among them was 27-year-old German national Christopher Eppinger. Over two and a half years, he executed deals worth roughly $2 billion, earning more than $250 million in personal profit.
Christopher Eppinger was born in 1994 near Hamburg to a family of engineer and physician who had emigrated from the USSR. After studying business, he became a trainee at Kazakhstan’s state-owned KazMunayGas at the age of 21.
He soon attracted the attention of Tyre von Wahl, founder of Hamburg-based SET Select Energy, who gave him $1 million to launch a small fuel-production venture in Kazakhstan. Eppinger managed to raise additional investment, but his local partners disappeared with the money. In 2021, one of the investors accused him of fraud and sought an investigation, though the case did not proceed. Still, Eppinger’s reputation took a serious hit.
He moved to Dubai, where he began selling oil to a German company, Uniper, for its refinery in Fujairah. In 2022, Uniper imposed a strict rule: no Russian oil. Eppinger had to overhaul his logistics, and during this period he connected with Tejarinaft, a company transporting crude across the UAE. If the incoming oil was Russian, the outgoing product was officially classified as “blended.”
In February 2023, Western countries introduced a price cap on Russian oil. Eppinger began buying it at the “sanctioned” price—no more than $60 per barrel—running it through Tejarinaft and other intermediaries and then selling it as “blended” at market rates that reached $90. One of the buyers remained the same Uniper refinery in Fujairah. The key to the scheme was certificates of origin: as long as they did not list “Russia,” clients asked no questions.
From 2022 to 2025, Eppinger’s company sold 3.3 million tonnes of oil to buyers from Brazil to China.
He celebrated his thirtieth birthday—June 13, 2024—at La Guerite, one of the most expensive restaurants in Cannes. That night alone, guests went through 300 bottles of Cristal champagne—no less than €100,000. On the Côte d’Azur he bought two houses, one for himself and one for his parents. He also owns several properties in Dubai, and by the time he turns forty he plans to purchase his own island. His collection includes works by Picasso.
In 2024, the United States began imposing sanctions on Dubai-based traders without distinguishing between those who breached the price cap and those who had formally complied with the rules. Eppinger wound down his operations involving Russian oil and renamed his company: instead of CE Energy (after his initials), it became Petrichor. He does not hide from investors or journalists that he made his fortune on Russian oil, but insists he has no intention of returning to a business so fraught with risk.