Cabinet not to allow monopolization of petroleum products market – Groysman

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman says the Cabinet will not take decisions to monopolize the petroleum products market, which could lead to fuel prices hike.

"There is once again a kind of turbulence from the perspective of those claiming that some decisions will be made that will lead to higher fuel prices. I want to assure all Ukrainian citizens that neither the trade commission nor government will take a decision that could lead to any monopolization, collusion, or even greater rise in fuel prices. Any attempts to create false monopolies are absolutely unacceptable," the prime minister told a government meeting on Wednesday, April 18.

According to the head of government, Ukraine needs investments in the oil refining industry to provide citizens with inexpensive and high-quality petroleum products.

Read alsoLPG output down in Ukraine, import boost seen in Q1 2018 – expert"I want Ukrainians to have access to inexpensive petroleum products. To this end, we need to reconstruct our existing oil refineries, and even better – build new ones. We are interested now in investments in this field, which will allow us producing more competitive and cheaper fuel, which we are now forced to purchase abroad," Groysman added.

As UNIAN reported earlier, on March 22, 2018, Ukrtatnafta applied to Ukraine's Economic Development and Trade Ministry with a proposal to limit petroleum products imports from certain countries by introducing quotas, which would reduce Ukraine's dependence on imported fuel. The company also asked Ukraine's Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade to conduct a special probe into the growth of petroleum product imports to Ukraine.

According to Ukrtatnafta, the majority of Ukrainian oil refineries were shut down due to a large share of imports. Therefore, without state intervention, the industry will not be able to eliminate dependence on energy supplies from Russia.

Ukraine in 2017 increased foreign exchange costs for imports of petroleum products by 27.3%, to $4.2 billion. In particular, the country imported petroleum products worth $1.828 billion from Belarus (43.9%) and $1.272 billion from Russia (30.6%),

Read alsoEuro 4 fuel outlawed in Ukraine from Jan 1UNIAN memo. Ukrtatnafta was established in 1994 on the basis of Kremenchuk oil refinery under orders of the presidents of Ukraine and Tatarstan. The enterprise's current capacity of processing crude oil is about 10.5 million tonnes per year. Kremenchuk refinery produces light oil products (gasoline of A-92 and A-95 grades, diesel fuel, and jet fuel), dark oil products, namely boiler oil and bitumen, as well as liquefied gas. The company's plant is connected by oil pipelines to the fields where Ukraine's largest oil producer, Ukrnafta, is extracting oil.