Kremenchuk oil refinery's workers insist on the dismissal of Ukrtransnafta’s heads / Photo from zn.ua
Employees of Kremenchuk oil refinery returned to picketing Ukrtransnafta's branch in Kremenchuk in the morning of August 3, demanding the dismissal of the company's top managers, namely Ukrtransnafta's Acting Director General Roman Sydorak and Kremenchuk branch's Director Vitaliy Velychko, as well as CEO and acting deputy chairman of the board of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine Andriy Pasishnyk, who previously was an assistant to MP Ihor Yeremeyev.
About 300 employees of the refinery were holding banners saying: "Down with Yeremeyev's Gang!," "Dismissal for Pasishnyk!," "Dismissal for Sydorak!," "No Liquidation of Ukrainian Refineries!," "We Demand Punishment for the Guilty!," an UNIAN correspondent reported.
There were three garbage containers at the entrance to the building of Ukrtransnafta's branch in Kremenchuk with photos of Pasishnyk, Sydorak, and Velychko.
Chairman of the refinery's trade union committee Vasyl Khomenko announced Ukrtatnafta's employees were demanding the dismissal of the top managers because they believed their activities might lead to a halt in the refinery's work.
"If Pasishnyk, Sydorak and Velychko do not resign in the next 48 hours, this will be a rally with unlimited duration. Amateurs are controlling the industry today, and we depend on them. It depends on their wish whether they supply or don't supply crude oil to us. We are a strategic company. This is not right!" Khomenko said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on July 31, both Ukrnafta and Kremenchuk refinery claimed the threat of a halt of their production because of the actions of state-owned Ukrtransnafta, which suspended the reception and transportation of oil despite advanced payment for the services.
On March 19, Naftogaz, which is the 100% owner of Ukrtransnafta, suspended Chairman of Ukrtransnafta's board Oleksandr Lazorko from his duties and appointed former Security Service officer with a dubious reputation Yuriy Miroshnikov to this post.
On April 23, Naftogaz appointed Sydorak to head Ukrtransnafta.
Market players said that a group of companies Continuum, controlled by businessman and MP Ihor Yeremeyev, was allegedly behind the scandal around Ukrtransnafta.
They claimed that Yeremeyev's interests in Ukrtransnafta were obvious, as he was trying to knock down the crude oil refining industry in order to monopolize fuel sales.
Prior to this appointment at Naftogaz, Pasishnyk worked as an assistant to Yeremeyev.
More than 300 Ukrtatnafta employees staged a rally outside Ukrtransnafta's branch in Kremenchuk on August 1, demanding the resumption of crude oil supplies to the refinery.
On August 3, Lazorko said that Ukrtransnafta's statement about the accident in the pipeline, which caused the suspension of crude oil supplies to Kremenchuk oil refinery, was untrue.
UNIAN's reference. Ukrtransnafta is the operator of Ukraine's oil transportation system, which includes 18 pipelines with a total length of 4,569 km, 51 oil pumping stations, 11 tank farms with a total capacity of 1.01 million cubic meters. The pumping stations operate 176 pumping units with a total capacity of electric motors being 356.9 GW. Its 100% stake is managed by NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine.
Ukrtatnafta was founded in 1994 on the basis of Kremenchuk oil refinery under orders of the presidents of Ukraine and Tatarstan. Naftogaz owns a 43.05% stake in Ukrtatnafta, another 28% is controlled by the structures of the Privat Group and businessman Oleksandr Yaroslavsky. The refinery's designed processing capacity is 18.6 million tonnes of crude oil per year.
In January-June 2015, Ukrtatnafta's net profit grew by 2.2 times, to UAH 1.026 billion from UAH 461 million.