Seems the price was not agreed to though. The Government simply said we will pay this much so they stopped delivering. Most likely they will get more oil when they are willing to pay more for it just as we are paying more for it.
17.05.2005, 15.25
KIEV, May 17 (Itar-Tass) -- Ukraine has no shortage of oil products, the deputy chief of the oil, gas and oil refining industry department at the Fuel and Energy Ministry, Tatyana Stadnik has said, when asked about the gasoline supply situation and panic buying at car filling stations.
At the same time Stadnik acknowledged that this month saw export-driven soaring demand for oil products in Western regions.
According to the ministry’s sources the reserves of gasoline at oil refineries and at oil tank farms on May 1 stood at 341,000 tonnes – an amount equivalent to monthly consumption. On May 16 the reserves at refineries, excluding the Odessa refinery, which presents no statistics, were at 71,000 tonnes, which is a normal level. The term “small” applies to reserves under 30,000 tonnes.
The Fuel and Energy Ministry has said the sole question about reserves should be addressed to the TNK-BP-controlled Lisichansk oil refinery, which accounts for half of Ukrainian oil refineries’ reserves – 30,000 tonnes. “Apparently it is unprofitable to sell up the reserves at the current prices,” the Fuel and Energy Ministry specialist said. For its part, the TNK-BP has said that this “dead stock” that cannot be recovered from the reservoirs.
The ministry argues these reserves are commercial.
The refineries this month have shipped to customers over 100,000 tonnes of gasoline, as much as in April. In May a total of 278,600 tonnes of gasoline is expected to be produced, an amount sufficient to meet the normal demand. Alongside this the government-controlled Ukrneft oil company has purchased 70,000 tonnes of light petroleum products in Belarus and the Baltic countries to be sold at government prices in the Ukrainian market. This zero profitability transaction is expected to return the market to stability