SOCAR Trading, a member of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), will participate as an operator in the export of oil products to Ukraine by Russia's state oil company Rosneft.
The corresponding contract has already been signed. SOCAR will replace the Swiss Proton Energy Group which decided to leave the Ukrainian market, due to “pressure from the Ukrainian security officials”.
The Swiss office of SOCAR Trading will coordinate sales and communication with Ukrainian counterparties. Meanwhile, the role of the Ukrainian office of the company in the distribution and sale of volumes is not excluded, Ukrainian ENKORR reports.
Contracts for the supply of Rosneft oil products will be concluded by SOCAR New Energy, registered in Cyprus.
This week, SOCAR Trading executives met with Proton Energy Group S.A., which had been distributing Rosneft's fuel in Ukraine until April this year, have begun talks with representatives of the company. According to sources, the new operator, which does not rule out the start of supplies this month, has a quota of more than 100,000 tons of diesel fuel and 12,000 tons of liquefied natural gas. Still, market participants think it is more reasonable to start supply in June.
According to available information, SOCAR has announced that it will supply diesel fuel at a price of more than US$ 30 per ton. However, no specific figures have been announced for liquefied natural gas due to a lack of interest in emergency supplies because of oversupply in the market.
The circumstances of the disappearance of the Coral Energy trader from the supply chain of Rosneft products, which in early April held negotiations with Ukrainian companies as a new supply operator, also remain unknown for ENKORR. “Taking into account the Azerbaijani roots of Coral Energy, it is possible that the reshuffle was carried out at the level of the leadership of Azerbaijan,” reads the article.
The only supplier of Rosneft products to Ukraine since 2016 has been the Swiss trader Proton Energy Group S.A. Pursuant to ENKORR, the Swiss trader decided to stop supplying petroleum products to the Ukrainian market from April 1, 2021, due to pressure from the Ukrainian security officials.
