PJSC Ukrnafta and the American Petroleum Institute (API) have signed a memorandum of understanding, according to which the company will have access to API standards agreed by the global industry community.
“Our experts will take part in meetings and working groups focused on developing and discussing top international practices. API and Ukrnafta will be able to jointly organize standardization, training, certification and safety events,” the company said in a press release on Friday.
According to the document, citing Ukrnafta CEO Serhiy Koretsky, this is the most strategic step for the national oil industry in many years of its existence.
“The Ukrainian oil and gas industry has a glorious history, strong experience and great development prospects. However, we have long been dependent on Soviet, Russian and Belarusian equipment. The API Memorandum should change this for good,” the CEO said.
The signed agreement confirms the commitment of both parties to strengthen Ukraine’s energy independence and its move away from Russian standards, equipment and operations.
According to the press release, quoting API Senior Vice President of Global Industry Services Anchal Liddar, API, as the world’s premier standard-setting organization for the natural gas and oil industries, is honored to begin a new cooperative relationship with Ukrnafta.
“This alliance reinforces our shared vision of strengthening Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and independence based on our world-class standards,” said Liddar.
For his part, according to the Ukrnafta CEO, the memorandum actually opens the door to the future for the company.
“We will be able to exchange information about annual programs, plans for the development of standards and best practices, which will allow us to understand how the world will develop and what Ukrnafta needs to do to be on the same page with the benchmarks that drive progress in the oil and gas industry,” Koretsky explained.
It is noted that the memorandum of understanding with API will allow Ukrnafta to significantly increase its efficiency and attract the best examples of world technologies to the development of the Ukrainian oil industry.
“This is one of the key projects of the company’s transformation in the coming years, which will allow Ukraine to gain the desired energy independence,” the press release says.
API was established in 1919. Since then, the organization has developed more than 800 standards to improve operational and environmental safety, efficiency, and sustainability.
Currently, API represents all segments of the American oil and gas industry. About 600 members of the organization produce, process and distribute most of the energy in the United States and participate in the API Energy Excellence® program, which accelerates progress in environmental and safety protection through the introduction of new technologies and transparent reporting.
The chain of perfumery and cosmetics stores EVA plans to open up to 60 new stores in 2024, with estimated investments in this area amounting to about UAH 200 million.
The company’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine that the focus will remain on the development of the EVA.UA online platform.
By the end of 2024, the company plans to complete the construction of a new warehouse in Lviv, and in 2025, a large-scale logistics center in Odesa.
“We are planning to make them (logistics warehouses – IF-U) automated – with robots. We are still finalizing the necessary investments, but we already see that they will amount to billions of hryvnias. We continue to invest in the EVA business despite the war. Because we believe in Ukraine’s victory and that the country will be restored and people will return home,” the press service quoted Olga Shevchenko, Executive Director of RUSH LLC, as saying.
According to the release, since the beginning of the year, EVA has opened 31 new stores and reopened 29, including nine new stores and five reopened stores in the third quarter. As of the end of the third quarter, the chain has 1,035 operating outlets.
New stores are opened mainly in the Women’s Energy concept, which the chain presented last year in Vinnytsia. There are more than 30 such EVAs in total.
According to Viktor Serednyi, COO of RUSH LLC, there is also a gradual rebranding of existing facilities that need to be updated, but a complete rebranding of the entire chain is not yet in the cards.
“The cost of re-equipping one store to fit the new concept is about UAH 3 million. Opening a completely new store can cost from UAH 5 to 10 million, depending on the size,” he said.
By the end of the year, the company plans to open 26 new EVAs. In particular, a new flagship EVA beauty lab is to appear in the Respublika shopping center. This format will offer more cosmetics and perfumes, a dermatology center, professional hair care series and an expanded category of premium brands.
RUSH LLC, which manages the EVA chain, was founded in 2002. It has 52 own trademarks (OTMs), which are represented by household goods, perfumes, cosmetics, jewelry, personal care products, accessories, underwear and children’s products. In 2022, the share of FMCG sales in physical terms was 30.6%. The company employs about 13.4 thousand people.
According to Opendatabot, the owner of RUSH LLC is Korsolyushyn LLC (100%), and the company’s ultimate beneficiaries are Ukrainian businessmen Ruslan Shostak and Valeriy Kiptyk.
According to RUSH’s financial results, its net profit in 2022 increased by 16.7% to UAH 973.8 million, while the value of its assets decreased by 2.5% to UAH 10.3 billion. The EVA network’s turnover in 2022 decreased by 7% year-on-year to UAH 15.7 billion.
Over the past 25 years, Ukraine has increased its total oilseed processing capacity by 9.2 times, from 2.6 million tons to 24 million tons, and significantly increased the production of raw materials, said Stepan Kapshuk, CEO of the Ukroliyaprom Association, at the XXI International Conference Fat&Oil Industry-2023.
As reported on the website of the Agrarian and Industrial Reforms, citing Kapshuk, Ukraine’s sunflower processing capacity is currently about 18 million tons, and rapeseed and soybean – 2 million tons.
Sunflower production has increased from 2.26 million tons in 1998 to a projected 14 million tons in 2023. This year’s rapeseed production is expected to reach 4.1 million tons against 0.13 million tons in 2000, and soybeans – 4.7 million tons against 0.06 million tons, respectively.
Mr. Kapshuk said that over the past 25 years, 70 new processing plants have been built in Ukraine, including 40 large ones, as well as 16 vegetable oil transshipment terminals. The industry has attracted investments worth more than $4 billion.
In 2023/2024 marketing year, Ukrainian oilseed processing companies will be able to process 15.6 mln tons of oilseeds, including 13.5 mln tons of sunflower, 1.5 mln tons of soybeans and 600 thsd tonnes of rapeseed. At the same time, sunflower oil production is expected to reach 6 million tons, soybean oil – 0.3 million tons, and rapeseed oil – 0.25 million tons, according to Ukroliyaprom.
Sukhaya Balka mine (Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro region), part of Aleksandr Yaroslavsky’s DCH Group, has commissioned a new block with 45,000 tonnes of iron ore reserves at Frunze mine.
According to a report in DCH Steel’s corporate newspaper on Thursday, the new production unit involved modern self-propelled equipment such as drilling rigs and a loader. The use of the equipment in the production process will help reduce costs and increase efficiency.
It is specified that the block is located at the minus 1200 m horizon of the Druzhba deposit. Its reserves amount to 45 thousand tons of raw materials with a high iron content of 62.9%. Blocks 51-57 are being developed using self-propelled equipment.
The miners plan to develop the industrial unit by the end of the year.
As reported, the deposit at Frunze mine was developed by open pit mining. Frunze has been mined by open pit since 1885. The mine was built in 1962. The design ore quality is 61.88% iron content.
Sukha Balka mine is one of the leading mining companies in Ukraine. It produces iron ore by underground mining. The mine includes Yubileynaya and Frunze mines.
DCH Group acquired the mine from Evraz Group in May 2017.
In January-September 2023, the state-owned company for the import and export of military and special services Ukrspetsexport earned a net profit of UAH 88.28 million, almost three times more than in the same period in 2022 (UAH 22.21 million).
According to the interim financial report of the state-owned company in the NSSMC disclosure system, net income increased by 91.9% to UAH 22 billion 028 million.
The company earned UAH 196.08 million in profit from operating activities, up 2.3 times, and gross profit doubled to UAH 1 billion 113 million.
At the same time, according to the company’s report to the NSSMC, in the first half of this year, Ukrspetsexport increased its net profit by 3.5 times compared to January-June 2022, to UAH 66.75 million, with net income growing by 2.8 times, to UAH 15 billion 159 million.
Thus, according to the results of the third quarter, the net profit of the state-owned company increased 7.3 times by July-September 2022 to UAH 21.53 million, while net income increased by 14.8% to UAH 6 billion 869.5 million.
As reported, in March 2022, Ukrspetsexport and its two subsidiaries, the specialized foreign trade company Progress and the foreign trade enterprise Spetstechnoexport, were temporarily excluded from the state concern Ukroboronprom and transferred to the Ministry of Defense by a government decision.
According to the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, in 2022, the state-owned company reduced its net profit by almost 2.5 times compared to 2021, to UAH 49.87 million, and its net income increased 12 times, to UAH 24 billion 174 million.
At the beginning of this year, the company employed 366 people (427 a year earlier).
Ovostar Union, one of the leading producers of eggs and egg products in Ukraine, increased sales of its main products in dollar terms by approximately 42.4% in 9M2023 due to higher prices for eggs and liquid egg products and increased sales of liquid egg products.
According to the operational report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on Thursday, compared to 9 months of last year, the number of eggs produced was 3.5% less – 1,148 million, of which 734 million eggs were sold in shells (-10.9%). At the same time, exports in the egg segment increased to 280 million from 223 million, and its share in egg sales rose to 38% from 27%.
At the same time, the average selling price of shell eggs in dollar terms increased to $0.114/egg from $0.076/egg a year earlier.
According to the report, during the reporting period, Ovostar increased egg processing by 4.4% to 354 million eggs. The output of dry and liquid egg products amounted to 1906 tons and 9374 tons, respectively, while a year earlier this figure was 2239 tons and 7609 tons.
Sales of dry egg products amounted to 1822 tons, up 13.1% year-on-year, of which 1300 tons, or 71%, were exported, compared to 1083 tons and 67%, respectively, a year earlier.
Sales of liquid egg products increased by 20.4% to 9,053 tons, of which 44% or 3,986 tons were exported, while in the first nine months of 2022 Ovostar exported 41% of its liquid egg products, or 3,117 tons.
It is specified that the average selling price of dry egg products decreased slightly to $8.59/kg from $8.63/kg in January-September 2022, while the average selling price of liquid egg products increased by 31% to $2.40/kg.
These figures bring the sales volume of main products in January-September this year to $168.3 million, which is 42.4% higher than in January-September 2022. Sales growth was 56.1% in the first half of the year and 68.1% in the first quarter.
The company also reported an increase in the number of poultry by 8.5% to 7.42 million, including laying hens by 9.2% to 6.28 million.
“Despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Group managed to increase its livestock by 8% year-on-year in the first 9 months of 2023. The management is working to bring the production and sales structure in line with the market situation, which has led to good operating results,” commented Boris Belikov, CEO of the company.
As reported, in 2022, Ovostar reduced its egg production by 9% to 1.55 billion eggs, and sales by 6% to 1.08 billion eggs. At the same time, sales of dry egg products decreased by one third to 2.13 thousand tons, and liquid egg products by 26% to 10.62 thousand tons.
In 2022, the company earned $6.09 million in net profit, which is 3.7 times more than in 2021. Its revenue increased by 1.7% to $135.63 million last year.
In the first half of 2023, Ovostar earned $20.63 million in net profit, while the same period in 2022 ended with a net loss of $19.78 million. Its revenue for the first six months of this year increased by 56.8% to $88.69 million, mainly due to higher prices for its products.
