Last week, Ukraine’s Fuel and Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko and Russia’s Tatneft General Director Shafagat Takhautdinov signed a protocol outlining reconstruction of the Kremenchuk Oil Refinery, Ukrtatnafta President Serhiy Hlushko told reporters on Monday.
Mr. Hlushko said $1 billion is to be allocated for the reconstruction, including $200 million for the first phase: construction of isomerization, hydrocracking, and aromatics plants. In September, the Ukrtatnafta supervisory board will consider contractual and financial issues of project implementation, according to the president.
Anzhelika Ruban, PR officer with Ukrtatnafta, on Tuesday told the LED Monitor that a major goal of the modernization is to increase the oil refining depth and light products yield. The first phase will aim at improving the quality of gasoline and diesel fuel. Construction of a new plant for hydrofining of catalytic cracking gasoline, and reconstruction of the existing diesel fuel hydrofining plant is required to reduce the sulfur content in light products; and construction of a plant for isomerization of light fractions is required to increase the output of high-octane products. The construction may last for two to four years, according to Ms. Ruban.
The Transnational Financial-Industrial Oil Company “Ukrtatnafta” was established in 1994 in Ukraine in accordance with decrees by Leonid Kuchma, the then President of Ukraine, and Mintimer Shaymiev, President of Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan. Ukraine’s contribution to the company’s authorized capital was the Kremenchuk Oil Refinery, whereas Tatarstan paid in with cash and stock of oil producing companies. Ukraine’s first vertically integrated company, Ukrtatnafta comprises oil exploration, production, processing, and sale units, according to the company’s web site.
The annual oil refining capacity of Ukrtatnafta is 18 million tons. In 2005, the company processed more than six million tons of oil, and paid over UAH 1 billion in taxes.
Tatarstan-based Tatneft is holder of 8.6 percent of the Ukrtatnafta stock and controls Switzerland-based AmRuz Traiding AG, which has another 8.336 percent interest in the company.
Sources: