The State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine has put up for electronic auction five hydrocarbon sites with a total starting cost of UAH 207.8 million (excluding the cost of geological documentation), the authority has said.
At the auction on October 20, 2021, in particular, Pivdenno-Rusanivska area (Sumy and Poltava regions) was put up for UAH 92.5 million (hereinafter without VAT), Zhukivska area (Poltava region) – for UAH 5.306 million, the Kitvan area (Ivano-Frankivsk region) – for UAH 1.925 million, Reshetylivska area (Poltava region) – for UAH 2.229 million and Tynivske area for UAH 107.847 million.
As reported, following the results of electronic trading in 2020, the State Service of Geology and Subsoil attracted UAH 826 million of direct revenues to the state budget. In 2021, a plan was announced to receive at least UAH 750 million.
JSC Ukrtransnafta in June for the first time transported Algerian Saharan Blend crude oil, the press service of the company has reported
“After checking the quality indicators of crude oil, the company began accepting it into the oil transmission system for further transportation to the facilities of the Kremenchuk oil refinery. Algerian oil will be transported through the Odesa-Kremenchuk pipeline,” the press service said.
The press service recalled that in addition to pumping oil from Ukrainian fields, UTN now already has experience in transporting six grades of imported oil: Urals, Azeri Light, Bakken (since July 2019), El Sharara (since November 2019), WTI (since June 2020) and Saharan Blend.
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.
DTEK is considering the possibility of expanding its oil and gas business in Ukraine, CEO of the company Maksym Timchenko has said in an interview with the Ekonomichna Pravda edition.
“We are constantly studying the deposits of all available players on the market. That is, we are open to expanding our business, without exception, with all players, including state-owned companies. If there are such opportunities not only for acquisitions, but also for joint activities, some kind of joint projects in exploration and production, we are ready for this,” he said.
According to Timchenko, in particular, the assets of Geo Alliance group for DTEK are “a potential area of our interest.” At the same time, he did not comment on the details of the negotiations.
As reported, in 2020 DTEK Oil and Gas increased natural gas production by 10.8% (by 180 million cubic meters) compared to 2019, to 1.84 billion cubic meters. In 2021, the company plans to increase gas production to 2 billion cubic meters.
Geo Alliance produced 203 million cubic meters of gas in 2020.
Geo Alliance is under the mandate of the international investment and consulting group EastOne, which unites the assets of Victor Pinchuk. In 2012, EastOne announced a strategic partnership between Geo Alliance and Arawak Energy Ukraine BV, part of the Vitol group of companies, one of the largest operators in the world energy market.
Transit of oil through the territory of Ukraine by pipelines to European countries and Belarus in January-March 2021 decreased by 14.2% (by 488,300 tonnes) compared to the same period in 2020, to 2.959 million tonnes, according to the data of JSC Ukrtransnafta.
In particular, transit in the direction of Budkovce (Slovakia) amounted to 1.986 million tonnes (less by 13.4% compared to January-March 2020), Fenyeslitke (Hungary) – 702,300 tonnes (less by 21.3%), Mozyr (Belarus) – 270,600 tonnes (more by 3.5%).
The volume of oil transportation to refineries of Ukraine in the first quarter of this year amounted to 526,000 tonnes, which is 11.2% (66,100 tonnes) less than in January-March 2020. In particular, oil transportation along the Odesa-Kremenchuk route amounted to 197,900 tonnes (less by 13.9%).
Thus, in 2020, the total transportation of oil through the company’s pipelines amounted to 3.485 million tonnes (less by 13.7%). The share of transit volume in it is 84.9%, pumping to the country’s refineries – 15.1%.
In March 2021, oil transit through Ukraine by pipelines fell by 35.3% (by 492,800 tonnes) compared to the same month in 2020, to 903,000 tonnes.
Pumping to Ukrainian refineries last month decreased by 0.5% (by 900 tonnes), to 195,400 tonnes.
Ukrtransnafta said among the factors that influenced the total volume of oil transportation in the first quarter of 2021 were a decrease in oil demand among European consumers due to quarantine measures and the withdrawal of an oil refinery in Hungary for scheduled repairs.
Ukraine in January-March 2021 imported 1.812 million tonnes of petroleum products (according to foreign economic activity code 2710: petrol, diesel fuel, fuel oil, jet fuel, etc.), which is 10.4% more year-over-year (1.642 million tonnes). According to the State Customs Service, petroleum products were imported to the tune of $894.99 million, which is 8.2% less than in January-March 2020 ($ 975.061 million).
Fuel was imported from Belarus for $416.163 million (the share is 46.5%), Russia for $283.626 million (31.69%), Lithuania for $85.767 million (9.58%), other countries for $109.434 million (12.23%).
In addition, Ukraine exported 113,426 tonnes (49.4% compared to January-March 2020) of petroleum products for a total of $53.49 million (17.4%). The cost of fuel delivered to counterparties from Turkey amounted to $12.338 million, the Czech Republic some $11.778 million, Latvia some $10.936 million and other countries to $18.438 million.
