In the marketing year 2023-2024 (MY, June-July), Ukrzaliznytsia JSC (UZ) transported 35.122 million tons of grain cargo, the best figure in the last four years, said Valery Tkachev, Deputy Director of Transportation Technology and Commercial Work Department of UZ, at a meeting with agricultural market participants on Thursday.
According to him, in June, 3.48 million tons of grain were transported by rail in all directions, a third more than in the same month of 2023.
In the first six months of this year, UZ transported 21.85 million tons of grain, which is 30% more than in the same period last year.
At the same time, 2.558 million tons of grain were transported in export traffic in June, and 18.731 million tons in six months, which is 43% more than a year earlier.
Export volumes of oil and oilcake and meals also increased. Thus, in January-June 2014, 954 thousand tons of vegetable oil were transported by rail, which is 30% more than last year. During the same period, the transportation of oilcake and meal increased by 19% to 1.41 million tons, Tkachev summarized.
Agrotrade agricultural holding has started threshing winter rapeseed on 11 thou hectares in the 2024 season, the company’s press service reported on Facebook on Wednesday.
“We started harvesting this year as planned. The weather is favorable for us. Short-term rains in the Kharkiv region did not significantly interfere with the harvest, and the grain moisture content is at a basic level. We took care of the necessary resources and equipment in advance, so we have everything we need,” said Oleksandr Ovsyanyk, Director of the holding’s Agricultural Department.
According to the report, rapeseed threshing is already underway in Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions. Soon, the harvesting of this crop will begin in Sumy region. In total, it will last about three weeks.
The Agrotrade Group is a vertically integrated holding company with a full agro-industrial cycle (production, processing, storage and trade of agricultural products). It cultivates over 70 thousand hectares of land in Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava and Kharkiv regions. Its main crops are sunflower, corn, winter wheat, soybeans and rapeseed. It has its own network of elevators with a simultaneous storage capacity of 570 thousand tons.
The group also produces hybrid seeds of corn and sunflower, barley, and winter wheat. In 2014, a seed plant with a capacity of 20 thousand tons of seeds per year was built on the basis of Kolos seed farm (Kharkiv region). In 2018, Agrotrade launched its own brand Agroseeds on the market.
Vsevolod Kozhemiako is the founder and CEO of Agrotrade.
The Kyiv City Council has decided to sell a 0.33-hectare land plot at 8 Harmatna Street in the Solomianskyi district of the capital to Knauf Gypsum Kyiv LLC for the operation and maintenance of the company’s transport shop.
The corresponding draft decision was supported by 77 deputies at the meeting on July 4.
As stated in the draft decision, Knauf Gypsum Kyiv has already paid an advance of UAH 1.4 million under the agreement of August 14, 2023.
At the same time, the balance of the price is UAH 11.9 million, which the company must pay within 10 days after the notarization of the sale and purchase agreement.
According to Opendatabot, Knauf Gypsum Kyiv LLC is owned by the German company Knauf International GmbH (100%).
Knauf is a leading global manufacturer of gypsum and building materials. In Ukraine, the company is represented by two plants for the production of gypsum boards.
As reported, in November 2023, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) included German Knauf in the list of international sponsors of war, which has now been canceled.
PJSC Ukrnafta has received applications from six companies for joint development of 15 fields out of 21 offered for investment in 2023, said Denys Kudin, Executive Vice President for Corporate Strategy and Development.
“We have received applications from 6 companies for 15 fields. No one applied for 6 fields, for some fields only one application was received, for others there were two applications, so we have to hold a certain internal competition,” he said during a speech at the IV Energy Law Conference in Kyiv on Friday.
According to him, the largest offer for investment in one field is $100 million, and the smallest is $7 million. Regarding the latter, he clarified that it was the best offer for the smallest field.
“As of this moment, the process (of attracting investors to joint field development – EP) is ongoing. We have passed the stage of accepting and evaluating proposals, finalized the commercial terms as seen by potential investors. The next step is the approval of these terms by our Supervisory Board, review by the interdepartmental commission under the Ministry of Energy, and then approval by the Cabinet of Ministers. This is the process, and we hope to complete it by the end of the calendar year,” said Kudin.
He said that Ukrnafta has proactively approached about 200 companies in the process of looking for investors and has also held talks with a number of companies at industry conferences. Out of this number of potential investors, more than 50 responded, and of these, 35 companies passed the due diligence process and were admitted to the Virtual Data Room with detailed information about the fields.
Kudin added that “the companies submitted proposals on average 1.5 times better than we had developed on our own, having formed their own vision of this five-year initial program.”
Describing the process of finding investors, Kudin noted that the company ranked them by country – in Canada, America, the UK, and the EU – and applied proactively, as well as advertising in the media, on the website, and at all possible industry events.
Regarding the selection of 21 fields, the company’s vice president noted that according to the criteria of the law on production sharing agreements (PSAs), “these are the worst, most difficult to produce, most depleted fields (out of 89 fields of Ukrnafta – EP) that require the use of high-cost, state-of-the-art technologies.” To assess them, 80 years of data were digitized.
Kudin pointed out that despite the war, foreign companies are ready to work in Ukraine and, in particular, to engage in production.
“We are not talking about top public companies where supervisory boards make decisions. For the most part, these are medium-sized private companies with a specific family of owners who continue to manage their business and risk their own money. They are ready to invest $50-60-100 million,” he said, adding that investors are encouraged by the possibility of resolving disputes under English law when concluding PSAs.
In general, he believes that about $10-15 billion should be invested in oil production over the next 10 years to reach annual production of 10 million tons, which would ensure Ukraine’s energy independence in this area.
As reported, at the end of 2023, Ukrnafta informed that 25 companies, including Ukrainian and companies from seven countries in Europe and North America, have already expressed interest in cooperation in the tender for the joint development of 21 fields (applications were accepted until March 1, 2024).
According to the company, the 2P category reserves, i.e. proven and probable reserves of the fields to which Ukrnafta offers access to potential partners, amount to over 12 million tons of oil and over 31 billion cubic meters of gas.
“In 2023, Ukrnafta increased oil and condensate production by 3% (by 39.9 thousand tons) compared to 2022, to 1.4 million tons. Last year, Ukrnafta produced 1.097 bcm of natural and associated petroleum gas, which is 5.8% (60.4 mcm) more than in 2022.
“Ukrnafta is the largest oil producer in Ukraine and the operator of the national network of filling stations. In March 2024, the company took over the management of Glusco assets and operates 545 filling stations – 460 owned and 85 managed. The company is implementing a comprehensive program to restore operations and update the format of its filling stations. Since February 2023, Ukrnafta has been issuing its own fuel coupons and NAFTAKarta cards, which are sold to legal entities and individuals through Ukrnafta-Postach LLC. Ukrnafta’s largest shareholder is Naftogaz of Ukraine with a 50%+1 share. In November 2022, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine decided to transfer to the state a share of corporate rights of the company, which belonged to private owners and is currently managed by the Ministry of Defense.
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