REUTERS
Ukraine's only oil refinery, operating at a fraction of capacity, plans to revive its fortunes with imports of Kazakh crude, its owner Ukrtatnafta said on Thursday, according to Reuters.
"Ukrtatnafta plans to buy two tankers of the CPC blend a month from fields in Kazakhstan," the company said in emailed comments to Reuters.
Ukrtatnafta plans to import CPC Blend from the Caspian pipeline consortium (CPC). It aims to buy some 160,000 tonnes a month of CPC Blend from the consortium, which pumps oil from Kazakhstan to the Black Sea.
The Kremenchug plant had for long relied on Russian oil but has been forced to turn to Ukraine's own minimal oil output. The refinery is in central Ukraine, safe from the conflict in the east.
Kremenchug, with nameplate capacity of 18.6 million tonnes a year (370,000 barrels per day), is running at only 14% of that. Transport bottlenecks and storage capacity restraints also hamper its plans to raise fuel output.
The major shareholders of CPC are Russia with 21%, Kazakhstan with 20.75% and Chevron with 15%.
Ukrtatnafta, according to its own estimates, accounts for 10% of Ukraine's oil products market, the rest being imported. It said it may increase that share to up to 30% by raising production.