Ukraine is negotiating with investors and is ready to act as their partner in an oil refinery project, but it needs guarantees for the supply of oil regardless of the political situation, Deputy Head of the President’s Office of Ukraine Kyrylo Tymoshenko has stated.
“We have an idea for our own oil refinery … This is a big investment. We spoke with several investors, but the state is also ready to invest in such an enterprise. At the same time, we need to understand how we will get oil so as not to depend on any political situations,” Tymoshenko said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, in particular, the presence of an oil refinery will fully guarantee the supply of bitumen for the Big Construction project.
Tymoshenko stated that today, due to cheaper logistics in the volume of bitumen imports to Ukraine, Belarus is the leader.
“There is also Ukrainian bitumen – Kremenchuk [oil refinery], but its volumes are not enough, although the plant is operating at full capacity. In addition, there are quality issues related to the oil used, but in principle it is now at the level,” Tymoshenko said.
He noted that, in addition to Belarusian bitumen, Ukraine imports Greek, Italian and from other countries. The scheme for the supply of bitumen by tankers was worked out last year, when there were traffic jams on the border with Belarus.
“We do not think that Belarus will stop supplying bitumen to us, because we are a really large customer … If Belarus refuses to supply bitumen to Ukraine, then its suppliers, according to our information, have booked quotas in other countries. There will be no problems with this,” he said.
Tymoshenko also said that within the framework of the Big Construction project, Ukraine is ready to build new oil and gas terminals on the Black Sea, there are preliminary agreements after the visit of the President of Ukraine to Qatar.
At present, the state, through NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy, owns 51% in Ukrnafta, the largest oil company, which in 2020 reduced oil and condensate production by 1%, to 1.5 million tonnes. Another 42% are controlled by the ex-owners of PrivatBank. Oil and condensate production by Naftogaz Group decreased to 1.95 million tonnes from 2 million tonnes a year earlier, while in Ukraine as a whole – to 2.4 million tonnes from 2.43 million tonnes in 2019.
JSC Ukrtransnafta, having checked the quality of U.S. crude oil (the Bakken formation), which was delivered by a tanker late last week, has started pumping it into the pipeline towards Ukraine’s Kremenchuk oil refinery.
“After the compliance of the crude oil was confirmed, Ukrtransnafta began pumping oil for its further transportation through the Odesa-Kremenchuk oil pipeline to the Kremenchuk refinery,” Ukrtransnafta said on Facebook on July 13.
As reported, the first batch of crude oil from the United States arrived in Odesa on July 6. It was delivered by the Wisdom Venture tanker.
CRUDE OIL, KREMENCHUK, OIL REFINERY, QUALITY, U.S., UKRTRANSNAFTA
