Rosneft was interested in buying PJSC Odesa oil refinery in early 2014, plant CEO Vasyl Ponomarenko said at a press conference held at Interfax-Ukraine.
“At the beginning of the year, as far as I know, negotiations [with Rosneft] were held. But under the current relations between Ukraine and Russia who will invest money here from Russia, because it is not clear when it will be received,” he said.
According to Ponomarenko, Odesa oil refinery is currently under seizure as part of the investigation into Serhiy Kurchenko. Under a court ruling, petroleum products are exported from the plant (in particular, to the Odesanaftoprodukt base, belonging to Privat Group). At the same time, the owner of the fuel – Cypriot Soprema Trading Ltd – is preparing a lawsuit against the plant, demanding the return of said fuel. Odesa oil refinery considers the court ruling on property seizure, as well as the fuel exports to be unlawful.
As reported, in 2013 VETEK Group of Serhiy Kurchenko bought Odesa oil refinery from Lukoil Group.
Later VETEK transferred the enterprise to OAO VTB Bank (the Russian Federation) as a pledge on the loan issued by the bank to Swisspro Capital Ltd (the company is affiliated with Soprema Trading).
The design capacity of Odesa oil refinery is 2.8 million tonnes per year, the company is now standing idle.
