| Yushchenko had to choose between Tymoshenko and gasoline Viktor Yushchenko put an end to the confrontation between Russian oil companies and the Ukrainian government. Late on Wednesday evening, he signed a decree “On measures to stabilize the situation on the oil and petroleum products market,” and yesterday he met with the heads of the largest Russian raw materials companies. The decree of the country's president turned out to be very harsh. The very first paragraph states: “Recognize the activities of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in implementing the policy of ensuring the functioning of the oil and petroleum products market, regulating pricing on it by administrative methods as not meeting the fundamentals of a market economy. Draw the attention of members of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to the inadmissibility of such practices and personal responsibility for ensuring the future stability of the functioning of this market.”
As is known, the ideologist of this policy of the Ukrainian government was Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. It was she who pointed out that the issue of deprivatization of oil sector enterprises was not closed, and it was she who held negotiations with the leaders of LUKOIL and TNK-BP, after which the companies had no choice but to stop the refineries “for repairs.” And it was she who signed the document establishing maximum prices for gasoline, which, according to oil workers, led to unprofitable oil refining.
Viktor Yushchenko yesterday called on oil workers to forget about the confrontation: “Starting today, we have demonstrated many steps on the Ukrainian side that make our market clearer, more predictable and more sensitive,” he said at a specially convened meeting. - I confirm that we will work exclusively with market tools in the (oil) market - Ed. ). Let’s turn the page that raised certain questions.” However, he did not specify who will now control the oil market in Ukraine - still Ms. Tymoshenko or himself. But this is precisely what determines whether a repetition of the confrontation is possible.
Negotiations between Mr. Yushchenko and Russian oil workers, which began at 5 p.m., lasted more than four hours. On the Russian side, the meeting was attended by LUKOIL President Vagit Alekperov (the company owns the Odessa Oil Refinery), TNK-BP President Robert Dudley (the Anglo-Russian holding controls the Lisichansky Oil Refinery), Tatneft President Shafagat Takhautdinov (Kremenchug Oil Refinery), and head of the Alliance group Musa Bazhaev (together with Kazakhoil owns the Kherson Oil Refinery). Russian oil companies control two-thirds of the petroleum products market and supply about 90% of the country's oil. The total share of the Lisichansky, Kremenchug and Odessa refineries in the gasoline market is estimated at 66%, in the diesel fuel market - at 51%. The production capacity of the Lisichansky and Kremenchug refineries is 18.62 million tons and 15.98 million tons, respectively, or approximately 70% of the total capacity of all refineries in the republic.
Immediately before the talks, Mr. Yushchenko said: “From now on, what was called the oil crisis is a crisis of the past. What happened on the market for petroleum products and crude oil in Ukraine is an example of how not to do things. Both individually and collectively, this is a policy from which we all lose. I don't feel professionalism here. Something was left unsaid somewhere, something was not fulfilled somewhere, somewhere someone acted unnecessarily,” Interfax quotes him as saying. The president also reproached the oil workers: “I’m ashamed when you’re waiting for spring, and along with the snowdrops there’s an oil and energy crisis. This is disgusting and wrong. Why do two or three oil refineries undergo repairs in the first quarter when the sowing season begins? You are embarrassing your partners." The oil workers heard. TNK-BP promised to restart its plant from Monday, which has been undergoing repairs since April.
As RIA Novosti emphasizes, the Ukrainian leader especially noted that Ukraine processes about 22 million tons of oil per year, and the existing infrastructure allows the processing of over 50 million tons. Considering that the volume of current refining fully satisfies the volume of consumption in Ukraine (1.4 million tons were supplied to refineries in April and there was no shortage), Mr. Yushchenko clearly wants to turn his country into a major exporter of petroleum products to Europe. The oil workers understood this hint too. As Mr. Dudley stated, TNK-BP will continue to invest in large projects in Ukraine.
However, one of the main issues of concern to Russian business - the possibility of deprivatization of Ukrainian assets, according to Mr. Dudley, was not discussed at all at the meeting. The head of TNK-BP regarded this as the absence of such intentions. “From my point of view, a constructive dialogue took place, we are satisfied with all the results,” he said and promised that after the current meeting, the economy of Ukrainian oil refineries will not experience such a shock as it did this year. And the head of TNK-BP Ukraine, Alexander Goredetsky, added that prices for petroleum products will remain stable until the end of May: “We see that these prices are satisfactory. Fluctuations for May will be no more than 2-3%.”
In turn, LUKOIL Vice President Nikolai Cherny noted that his company has made a number of proposals on the safety of supplying Ukrainian oil products. According to him, LUKOIL has already begun to supply gasoline to Ukraine to resolve the crisis from other refineries in Europe. “We are confident that everything will be fine in Ukraine,” Mr. Cherny emphasized.
To summarize, the first assistant to the President of Ukraine, Alexander Tretyakov, told Interfax that the opinion that the oil companies “for some political reasons came to an agreement among themselves” and decided together to undermine the Ukrainian market is “not true” - this has been repeatedly stated by Mr. - Mrs. Tymoshenko. “I don’t think this is true, because each of them (of the heads of Russian oil companies present at the meeting - Ed. ) represents their company and works for its benefit,” he said. Denis REBROV |
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