Topic Of The Week
Results Of The LPG Year
Despite the introduction of an excise tax and an increased environmental tax, sales of propane-butane in 2011 have increased, and the number of people wishing to fill their cars with it has reached the pre-crisis level. In seven years, the number of filling stations offering liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has increased more than sevenfold, while the number of brand names has grown to five. But the old problems haven’t been solved. The state does not want to develop the market and does not control it, allowing several companies to cheat taxpayers of hundreds of million hryvnias annually…
Anti-counterfeit Campaign
Oil In Epaulettes
Late last year the Security Service of Ukraine exposed a gang specializing in the sale of crude oil owned by state-run company Ukrgazvydobuvannia. The leader of the criminal group was a local police officer, who wasn’t able to escape punishment either due to his position or to the unique way the oil was siphoned off, which was invented by self-professed oil and gas developers…
Scandals
SCANDAL OF THE WEEK: Kremenchuk Oil Refinery Accused Of Short Delivery Of Diesel
Internal Underfilling
On February 23, 2012, Poltava region’s economic court refused to satisfy a claim filed by PJSC Ukrnafta that demanded the recovery of 1,554 kg of high-quality diesel fuel from PJSC Ukrtatnafta and Pivdenna Railways. According to Ukrnafta’s lawyers, they obtained the grounds to demand the recovery of the diesel after the company discovered an insufficient amount in a delivered batch…
Forecast
Stalemate…
The fact that today the markets are more selective with statistical data from official sources is no longer a secret. And is it possible to generate a long-term trend, if published data don’t look so impressive or can be interpreted in a variety of ways…
Without Options
According to economic forecasts given by the Psyche Center on the basis of its regressive analytical model, this week the major fuel brands will go up in price again. The average retail price of A-92 and A-95 petrol to DSTU 4063:2001 standards and diesel fuel of summer-type 0.2-62 to DSTU 3868-99 standards will be UAH 10.21, UAH 10.57 and UAH 9.84 per liter respectively. The liter of LPG will cost UAH 5.76. The A-92 petrol will be underpriced by 2 kopecks, A-95 by 23 kopecks, diesel fuel by 8 kopecks, and liquefied gas by 27 kopecks.
Trade
Nailing Down
On March 6, 2012, the government’s Uriadovy Kurier newspaper published an interview by Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Prysiazhniuk. The country’s top farming official complained about the failure of the Fuel and Energy Ministry to fulfill the prime minister’s instructions to «find ways to reduce the price of 140,000 tonnes of diesel fuel and 60,000 tonnes of petrol by at least ten percent» for farmers. In his words, «given our resources of sugar and maize, [we] could easily produce nearly five million tonnes of biofuel»…
Raw Materials
The Cabinet Focuses On Quality
The Cabinet of Ministers has once again launched a quest for quality. At a meeting with representatives of public organizations and experts on consumer rights protection, which was held last Thursday, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said that the government jointly with the public would develop a new system of control over the quality of goods and services. Surely, the old system has many drawbacks, including the major one – a lack of funding. But will the new system get rid of it?
You can read full articles in journal «Terminal: Oil Review» №11(597) 19 Mar 2012
