BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 15
By Nargiz Ismayilova – Trend:
The Azerbaijani State Oil Company (SOCAR) has shown interest in storing oil in Ukraine, but our current legislation does not yet allow the provision of such a service, despite the availability of technical capabilities, General Director of Ukrainian Ukrtransnafta Public Joint Stock Company (PJSC), Head of the Naftogaz group’s oil division Nikolay Gavrilenko told the ENKORR YouTube channel, Trend reports.
Gavrilenko said that Ukraine either imports goods or transits them.
"So when SOCAR contacted us, the company said it wants to store oil with us for a year, with possibility to make decision on whether to refine it or transport it by pipeline to Belarus, or load it on the tankers and transport it by sea for sales elsewhere," Gavrilenko said. "Our legislation doesn't allow such option for now."
He said that the the company appealed to the Ministry of Finance in order to obtain permission to create a licensed customs warehouse based on its capacity to provide oil storage services.
“The only technical possibility is the use of the linear part of the Kremenchug-Lisichansk oil pipeline section, where it is technically possible to store about 400,000 tons of oil. We submitted relevant initiatives to the Ministry of Finance, where, among other things, we propose recognizing an inactive section of the pipeline with a capacity, with certain nuances. If this is accepted, we will be able to enter the market with such a capacity,” Gavrilenko said.
It is possible to consider the Yuzhny (Southern) offshore oil terminal as a storage location, but with big reservations, the terminal currently can accommodate 200,000 cubic meters, or 170,000 tons, but this is not enough even for placing oil from two tankers of 90,000 tons each, Gavrilenko noted.
“Even if we take one and put it in storage, we will not be able to take the second one for, say, transportation in the interests of Belarus or Kremenchug,” he added.
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