KYIV. Nov 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Belarus increased petroleum and diesel fuel supplies to Ukraine by 48% or 962,000 tonnes in January through September 2016, to 2.966 million tonnes, Commercial Director of CJSC Belarusian Oil Company (BelOil) Sergey Grib said at the Petroleum Ukraine conference organized by A-95 Consulting Group in Kyiv on Wednesday.
BelOil, in particular, shipped 2.934 million tonnes of petroleum and diesel fuel.
Grib said that Belarus’ share of total petroleum and diesel fuel imports to Ukraine reached 63% compared to 43% year-over-year.
He said that in January-September 2016 diesel fuel shipments from Belarus to Ukraine grew by 37.3% or 558,000 tonnes, to 2.053 million tonnes (2.033 million tonnes delivered by BelOil).
Belarus’ share of total diesel fuel imports to Ukraine was 57% compared to 44% year-over-year.
Petroleum shipments from Belarus to Ukraine grew by 79% or 403,000 tonnes, to 913,000 tonnes (901,000 tonnes delivered by BelOil). Belarus’ share of total petroleum imports to Ukraine was 82% compared to 43% year-over-year.
Shipments of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from Mozyr Oil Refinery (Belarus) to Ukraine rose by 4% or 2,872 tonnes, to 75,041 tonnes. Bitumen supplies soared by 2.4 times (133,298 tonnes), to 228,767 tonnes, and fuel oil supplies skyrocketed by 7.3 times or 196,039 tonnes, to 226,920 tonnes.
KYIV. Nov 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Austrian investment banker Uwe Christian Eschner has said that he seeks to acquire a large stake in Investbank (Odesa).
According to a report in the information disclose system of the National Commission for Securities and the Stock Market, the banker intends to acquire 45.55 million of the shares with a face value of UAH 58.305 million. This is 65.7% of the charter capital as of October 1, 2016.
Investbank was founded in 1992.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), as of June 7, 2016, its largest shareholders were Oleksandr Nezvinsky (directly 19.9649%, indirectly 24.0455% via Bab-invest LLC), Nika Teplits (indirectly 41.2577% % via Tesa LLC), Ihor Teplits (directly 5.7264%), Serhiy Yablonsky (indirectly 3.7529% via Agro-Invest Ukraine) and Tamara Nezvinska (directly 2.353%).
The bank ranked 76th among 100 operating banks as of October 1, 2016, in terms of total assets worth UAH 410.2 million, according to the NBU.
KYIV. Nov 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – McKinsey & Company will develop a “roadmap” for the first phase of the updated Energy Strategy of Ukraine until 2035.
Such a preliminary agreement was achieved at a meeting of the steering committee to coordinate work on the preparation of the Energy Strategy 2035 under the leadership of Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Kistion.
According to his press service, the previous draft strategies prepared by the National Institute for Strategic Studies and the Razumkov Centre were presented as well, while the participants discussed the possibility of uniting the documents to finalize the strategy.
“The development of this document is necessary for the sustainable development of the energy sector of Ukraine. We have to see our objective in the medium term and understand the ways to achieve it,” Kistion said.
According to him, applications to the main document, the so called roadmaps, will be developed for separate stages defined in the strategy.
KYIV. Nov 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPF) has stated investors are highly interested in the privatization of hydroelectric power stations on the Pivdenny Buh River and said there are potential buyers of Ukrainian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (UBRD) and Odesa port-side chemical plant.
“We already have more than ten applications for each hydroelectric power plant, and the majority of interested parties are foreigners. There are those interested in buying UBRD and Odesa port-side plant,” SPF Head Ihor Bilous wrote on his Facebook page.
At the same time, he noted that, unlike the applicants themselves, the fund has no right to disclose the names of the companies, their country of origin and quantity, as well as comment on someone’s statements.
Bilous said the SPF is preparing transparent and open tenders and waits for all the candidates, while the final list of participants will be determined by competitive commissions.
KYIV. Nov 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – A research vessel Iskatel on November 17 will start a voyage from Odesa to explore shelf for oil and gas near the Snake Island in the Black Sea.
The press service of Ukraine’s State Service of Geology and Deposits, the Iskatel vessel is the only research vessel in Ukraine. It would resume exploration of shelf after a three-year idle period. In 2015 the vessel was repaired.
The Iskatel vessel is a unique vessel for seismic and exploration works.
The press service said that the southern area of the country is a promising one and the least explored.
KYIV. Nov 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales in 2017 would exceed petrol sales, Director of A-95 consulting group Serhiy Kuyun has said.
“In the past three years LPG sales grew by more than 1.5 times. In 2016, the volume of LPG sold in liters would be the same as petrol, and in 2017 LPG sales would exceed petrol sales,” he said at the Petroleum Ukraine 2016 conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.
Kuyun added that the large growth of the LPG segment is linked to lower prices compared to petrol.
He recalled that this was clearly seen after removing obstacles created for importers of LPG in the times when Viktor Yanukovych was president. The expert said that geography of LPG supplies to Ukraine expands today. This year LPG even came from Sweden, Egypt and Italy.
“It is likely that Ukraine would enter the top five largest LPG consumers in the world,” he said.
