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9.2 Major corporate news 9.2.1 Oil & gas corporate news
State-owned national gas company Naftogaz paid UAH8bn ($304mn) in dividends for 2017 into the state budget , the company said on June 21, making it Ukraine’s biggest tax payer . In addition the company will transfer another UAH11.8bn or 30% of the company’s 2017 net profit to the budget by the end of June. This year’s dividend payment is down from the UAH13.3bn in dividends the company paid out for 2016 to the state making it the most profitable enterprise among all companies owned by the state for that year. All the enterprises in the Naftogaz complex have paid a total of over UAH60bn in taxes and dividends to the national budget this year as of June 21. Naftogaz Ukrainy unites the largest oil and gas producing enterprises of the country. It is a monopolist in transit and storage of natural gas in underground storage facilities, as well as transportation of oil by pipelines throughout the country. Former it was loss-making and a huge drain on the budget. One of the few stand out successes of the 2014 Maidan revolution has been to transform the company into a money-making enterprise.
The Ukrainian authorities, which control a 50% stake in the nation's biggest state-controlled oil producer Ukrnafta , may split the company up as one of the options to resolve the issue of its huge debt to the state. Ukrnafta would be divided into three businesses: natural gas, crude oil and infrastructure, according to Interfax news agency. Some of the separated businesses will be purchased by the current shareholders of Ukrnafta, and the money raised will be directed to repay its tax debts, the enkorr.com.ua news site reported, citing a letter from Naftogaz. Currently, an independent evaluation of all Ukrnafta assets is being performed, which will enable such a separation. Another option to resolve Ukrnafta’s debt issue is mid-term restructuring, according to cited Naftogaz letter, as had been proposed by Ukrnafta’s management two years ago. In 2016, the company initiated a financial stabilisation process to maintain its solvency.
Ukraine has warned Irish oil company Petrel Resources not to build a liquefied natural gas facility in Crimea , reports The Irish Times. In April, David Horgan, a Petrel director, suggested at the Yalta International Economic Forum that international sanctions against Crimea could be avoided if the plant were built in the Kerch Strait, presumably on the mainland Russia side. Under current sanctions law, EU companies and citizens are banned from investing in energy projects on the peninsula. In September, 2014, after Crimea’s annexation, executives of Gazprom, Petrel’s joint venture partner, spoke at a conference, “Integration of Crimea into infrastructure of Russia’s oil product market.” There, Gazprom identified the Kerch strait as a leading location for an LNG plant.
9.2.3 Transport corporate news
Delta Wilmar Group, Ukrainian subsidiary of Singapore’s Wilmar International Ltd., plans a series of investments for Yuzhny port, according to the Sea Ports Authority. Wilmar plans to build a soybean processing plant capable of handling 2,000 tons of beans a day, a 40,000-ton grain storage terminal, and a new berth designed to handle 3mn tons a year in
57 UKRAINE Country Report July 2018 www.intellinews.com