20.09.02

GUUAM foreign ministers define cooperation priorities

GUUAM foreign ministers have held the first session of their council in New York to discuss the implementation of agreements reached at the GUUAM summit in Yalta in July 2002.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Anatoliy Zlenko, who visited UN headquarters to attend the 57th session of the General Assembly, took part in the meeting, the press service of the Ukrainian foreign ministry told Interfax on Thursday.

The foreign ministers prioritized the implementation of the agreement on a free trade zone and praised the Ukrainian initiative to hold a session of the preparatory committee for the OSCE-GUUAM project in Kyiv in November 2002.

Zlenko presented to the United States for preliminary consideration three GUUAM cooperation projects that could be implemented with U.S. assistance.

The foreign ministers defined three priorities of GUUAM cooperation, namely, the free trade zone, energy corridors and security.

GUUAM is made up of Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova.

(Interfax-Ukraine)

Eximnefteprodukt Plans To Build 19 Petroleum Product Storages In 2002

The Eximnefteprodukt company (Odessa) which carries out petroleum transshipment, plans to build 19 new storages for crude oil and petroleum products.

In particular, the company plans to build 4 storages with volume of 20,000 cubic meters, 12 with volume of 7,800 cubic meters and 3 with volume of 3,000 cubic meters.

According to the statement, construction of new petroleum storages allows Eximnefteprodukt increase volume of crude oil and petroleum products transshipment by 5%.

By the end of the year the company plans to transship 5 million tons of fuel oil and 0.5 million tons of diesel fuel.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the State Property Fund and the Cyprus-based company Bevalo Investments Limited are presently having a dispute about the ownership of 51% stake in Eximnefteprodukt.

The stake was transferred to the Bevalo Investments Limited by the Ukrnefteprodukt holding company as a deposit for the credit, which the company had failed to return in time.

Eximnefteprodukt owns Ukraine’s largest petroleum products transshipment terminal. Its annual capacity is about 15 million tons of crude oil and petroleum products.

Eximnefteprodukt ended 2001 with net profits of UAH 52.4 million.

(Ukrainian News, Vitalii Davii) 

Oil and gas fields in the Black and Azov seas will be developed in a new way

Stocks of oil and gas on the shelf of the Black, Azov, and also Caspian seas will be developed by using the new special technologies. As vice-president of company "Rosneft" Dmitry Antoniadi informed journalists on opened in Gelendzgike the International congress "New high technologies in gas, oil and power industry, and communications".

"Rosneft" company already started developing the Caspian shelf in Dagestan. There is an arrangement with administration of Krasnodar to the effect that "Rosneft" together with "Lukoil" company starts geological studying of the Azov shelf.

"We shall attract the hi-tech western companies to this activity", - noted Antoniadi.

Potential resources of the Azov -Black sea region is about 1531,9 million tons of equivalent fuel.

(Liga Online, www.liga.kiev.ua)