29.05.03

Ukrtransnafta proposes to transport Siberian Light through Odessa-Brody pipeline

Ukrtransnafta is proposing to transport Siberian Light oil through the Odessa-Brody pipeline, company CEO Oleksandr Todiichuk said in Brussels on Tuesday.

He said that this project would be advantageous to Russian companies, which would receive the possibility of supplying oil to European refineries. In addition, it would ease traffic through the Bosporus," he added.

"We want to balance the interests of large players on the market as much as possible," Todiichuk said, explaining the need for additional options for using the Odessa-Brody pipeline.

He said that at the moment PricewaterhouseCoopers is faced with the task of working in this area with companies that transport Siberian Light through Tuapse.

Ukrtransnafta does not yet know potential volumes of Siberian Light to be transported through the Odessa-Brody pipeline.

Ukrtransnafta in January-May 2003 already transported 9 tankers of oil from the Yuzhny terminal with 767,000 tonnes of oil and paid 40 million hryvna to the Ukrainian budget from the use of the terminal and the 52-km Odessa-Brody pipeline.

(Interfax)

Ukraine to sell state shares in Ukrtatnafta

The Ukrainian State Property Fund plans to sell 43.054% of shares in Ukrtatnafta in September this year, fund Chairman Mikhail Chechetov said at a press conference on Tuesday.

He noted that at the moment the state packet is being valued. "According to our forecasts, the price of the packet will be more than $100 million," he said.

Chechetov also noted that the Property Fund has submitted a proposal to the government on the sale by tender of 98% of shares in Dnepropetrovsk Dzerzhinsk Metallurgical Plant. "Due to the fact that the price for this packet may exceed 1 billion hryvna, we need to be ready for the fact that foreign investors may try to buy it, as we will not find domestic investors at this price," he said.

ZAO Ukrtatnafta was set up in accordance with a decree from the Ukrainian president and the president of Tatarstan in 1994, based at Kremenchug Oil Refinery. The Tatarstan State Property Committee owns 28.778% of shares in the company, the corporation Seagroup International Inc. - 9.96%, Tatneft - 8.613%, and Amruz Trading AG - 8.336%.

(Interfax)