Page 52 - UKRRptAug19

9.0 Industry & Sectors 9.1 Sector news
9.1.1 Oil & gas sector news
Ukraine's state-owned gas company Naftogaz has filed a suit with the Hague Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) demanding Russian pay the Ukrainian company $5.2bn in compensation for assets its lost following Russia’s annexation of the Crimea in 2014, the company said in a statement on July 31. “Naftogaz Ukrainy and the companies that comprise the Naftogaz group filed a suit to the tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague at the end of June containing claims for compensation of losses from expropriation of Naftogaz group’s assets in Crimea. The Naftogaz group asks the court to oblige the Russian Federation to pay $5.2bn to the plaintiffs,” the statement read. Naftogaz said it expected the PCA to make a decision on the case not earlier than by the end of 2020. Amongst the assets Naftogaz lost were the Crimean natural gas company Chernomorneftegaz, which was nationalized in March 2014 when Crimea joined Russia.
Ukraine has accumulated 15.9bn cubic metres (bcm) of gas in storage as of July 31 , up from 12.8 bcm at the same time last year, Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz said on Friday. It said the country added 2.3 bcm in July and aimed to stockpile a total of 20 bcm by mid-October, when the 2019/20 heating season starts. Ukraine last year stored 16.9 bcm of gas for the 2018/19 heating season that ended in April.
National joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy in 2018 increased its share of natural gas imports to the country to 66%, which is 5 percentage points more than in 2017 (61%), according to consolidated statements of the group posted on its website last week. According to the document, Naftogaz in 2018 bought gas from 18 European suppliers (13 in 2017). In 2018, a total of 65 companies imported gas to the country (67 in 2017).
British oil giant BP has sold the first ever batch of crude oil supplied from the United States to Ukrainian state company Ukrtatnafta , Reuters reported . The move is seen as another blow to Moscow amid heavy political pressure from Washington and an oil contamination crisis, which has affected Russian exports. “The oil was sold by BP (BP.L) to Ukrtatnafta, sources said, adding Ukrtatnafta will receive a further similar amount of US crude around July 24, and more purchases were likely in August,” Reuters wrote. Ukraine this month received its first ever barrels from the United States, according to Refinitiv Eikon flows data, as the tanker Wisdom Venture unloaded 80,000 tons of Bakken crude in Odesa on July 6 for the Kremenchuk oil refinery, the port said. “The Ukrainian oil industry is set to rise from the ashes with its new president Zelenskiy, so it’s an obvious new market for the United States, though the price matters,” a trader in a European oil major told Reuters. Ukraine’s oil sector, formerly mostly operated by Russian companies, has struggled since geopolitical tensions between the countries escalated in 2014. Since then most of the country’s refineries have remained closed and the only oil supplied to Odesa is Azeri Light, sourced by Azerbaijan’s SOCAR . Since January 2019 it has supplied 320,000 tons, Refinitiv Eikon flows data shows.
52 UKRAINE Country Report August 2019 www.intellinews.com