Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 8
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
Ukraine is interested in Azerbaijani oil supply to its own refineries, Ukrainian Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Yuriy Prodan said at a briefing in Baku Sept. 8.
"The possible variants of Azerbaijani oil supply are a topic for discussion," he said.
Prodan also stressed that the Ukrainian side intends to continue friendly relations with Azerbaijan in the field of energy.
Earlier, Ukraine liquidated an advisory group on creating the new energy supply routes from Azerbaijan through the territory of Ukraine.
"This decision is not associated with a change in the energy policy of this country," the general director of the Sarmatia International Pipeline Company (ICC) Sergei Skripka told Trend earlier.
"This will not affect the enterprise's activity and the implementation of the construction project of the Brody-Plotsk (Adam's gate) oil pipeline," he said.
Sarmatia ICC was established on July 12, 2004 by Ukrtransnafta and the Polish company PERN Przyjazn in order to attract investments for the design and completion of Odessa-Brody oil pipeline until Plotsk.
The working group was established in 2011 on the instruction of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych.
Sarmatia's shareholders include SOCAR (Azerbaijan's State Oil Company), Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation Ltd. (GOGC), Ukrtransnafta, Polish Przedsiebiorstwo Eksploatacji Rurociagow Naftowych Przyjazn S.A. and Lithuanian AB Klaipedos Nafta with equity participation of 24.75 percent by the key shareholders and one percent to the Lithuanian company.
The Brody-Plotsk oil pipeline (Adam's gate) construction project, as an integral part of the Euro-Asian Oil Transportation Corridor, can actually create the conditions to ensure the diversification and oil supply from one of the most stable region in the world ( the Caspian region ) and the most promising one in terms of energy supplies.
The research on choosing the oil pipeline's future the Brody-Plotsk (Adam's gate) route has been completed. The length of the route will be 377 kilometers, some 120 kilometers of which will be built in Ukraine, and 257 kilometers in Poland.
The Odessa-Brody oil transportation project was planned to diversify oil supplies to Ukrainian refineries and develop the country's transit potential. The pipeline's construction was completed in May 2002. The main line has a length of 674 kilometers, with a pipe diameter of 1,020 millimeters. The pipeline's and terminal's capacity is 9 to14 million metric tons per year.
The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) has increased the number of its filling stations.
There are filling stations in Kiev, Odessa, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Rivne, Cherkasy, Khmelnytsky and Poltava regions.
The company imports petroleum products of leading refineries of Poland, Lithuania and Belarus, complying with Euro-5 environmental standard.
SOCAR intends to strengthen its positions in the Ukrainian fuel market. Therefore, the company continues to steadily develop a network of filling stations in the capital of Ukraine and its regions, as well as provide the population with quality European oil products.
SOCAR's investments in business development in Ukraine for 2009-2013 amounted to more than $ 160 million, while social and charitable initiatives equaled more than $5 million.
SOCAR is the only producer of oil products in the country (it has two refineries on its balance sheet) and also owns petrol stations in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Romania, and Switzerland.