REUTERS
Ukraine's Ukrtatnafta PJSC is preparing for refining the first batch of Azerbaijani Azeri Light oil in the volume of 80,000 tonnes at the country's Kremenchug refinery, the company said.
Ukraine has already received the batch in late December 2016.
In general, Ukrtatnafta, which is the operator of the Kremenchug refinery, expects that the total volume of such supply will reach 1.3 million tonnes in 2017.
"The project implementation has become possible due to the agreements between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Ukraine to restore the supply of Azerbaijani oil to Ukrainian refineries," the message says.
Read alsoLower fuel prices promised to Ukrainians due to increase of own productionAzerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR is an oil supplier.
"SOCAR has been already supplying Iranian gas condensate to Ukrtatnafta since October 2016," the message said. "Ukrtatnafta increased oil refining by 11 percent in 2016 due to the implementation of the project for the diversification of energy supplies. According to the preliminary plans of the company, oil refining is expected to be increased by more than 41%."
The volumes of oil transportation via Ukrtransnafta’s oil pipelines will also increase due to the project implementation, the company said.
Read alsoUkraine's oil giant Ukrnafta forecasts 15% drop in output in 2017Ukrtransnafta PJSC and Ukrtatnafta signed a protocol of intent to pump 4 million tons of Azerbaijani oil to the plant over the next three years. According to the document, Ukrtransnafta expresses its willingness to supply about 1.3 million tonnes of Azerbaijani oil a year over the next three years.