Ukrainian Oil Transportation System Current State and Development

Ukrainian oil transportation system whose operation is carried out by OJSC Ukrtransnafta consists of 19 oil-trunk pipelines having a total length of 4,766.1 km. The annual capacity of the system for oil transit from the Russian Federation is 114 million tons at the point of entry, and 56.3 million tons at the exit point. If necessary, the oil pipeline system is capable of fully meeting the needs of the refineries given their maximum design refining capacity of over 50 million tons per year. The oil pipeline system operation is ensured by 51 oil pumping stations with 176 pumping units having an aggregate capacity of 356,500 kW. The tank battery has an aggregate capacity of 1,085,000 cubic meters.

The oil pumping stations and Pivdennyi Sea Oil Terminal have 11 tanks batteries for stock-tank oil. There are 81 tanks which have a nominal capacity of 1,085,000 cubic meters, and a salable output capacity of 745,000 cubic meters.

The oil pipelines have been in operation from 20 to 44 years and 90% of them have exceeded their depreciation period. The oil transport system equipment is maintained in a reliable condition, but is obsolete and requires replacement or upgrading, and additional operational costs.

Ensuring operational reliability of the oil transport system for the immediate future (until 2010) will require financial expenditure totaling about UAH 4 billion, of which UAH 2.3 billion will be spent for implementing primary measures.

It is necessary that the condition of the existing oil pipeline system be made compatible with international standards, which requires introduction of new processes and technologies: energy-efficient electric motors and variable-frequency electric drive, high-efficiency pumps, state-of-the-art tank battery equipment, introduction of advanced automatic and remote control systems, turbulence-resistant additives, effective pipeline anticorrosive coating and pipeline electrochemical protection systems, efficient processes for cleaning pipelines and tanks from bottom water and paraffin sediments, oil volume and quality accounting system, advanced oil pipeline diagnostics and maintenance systems, information analysis systems for optimizing the oil transport system operating modes.

Oil transport in 2005 was 46.6 million tons, including 31.3 million tons of transit oil, 15.2 million tons supplied to refineries located in Ukraine, and 1.5 million tons through the Odesa-Brody pipeline. Ukrainian oil transported to refineries by pipelines was about 700,000 tons.

A serious drawback in the system of oil supply to Ukraine is that with regard to external raw stock deliveries Ukrainian oil pipeline system is connected only to the Russian oil pipeline system, which gives Russia a monopolistic position in terms of oil supply to and transit through Ukraine. Under such conditions, activities aimed at diversification of oil supply sources should be regarded as a key element in ensuring national security of the state and creating conditions for the country's economy stable operation and growth.

Ukraine's geographic location enables it to engage various oil supply sources by independent routes from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Near and Middle East countries, etc., while strengthening its role as a transit country between oil producing regions in the Caspian countries and important markets in Europe.

The oil pipeline system workload will be up to 65 million tons by 2010, and up to 70 million tons in 2015, and in the years to follow oil transport volumes will be maintained or will be gradually decreasing. Oil transport will be increased by staged implementation of a Druzhba and Adria pipelines integration project (which will provide additional 5 – 15 million tons for transport by Druzhba pipelines), as well as construction of an oil pipeline from Brody (Ukraine) to Plotsk (Poland), and staged implementation of the Eurasian Oil Transportation Corridor (EOTC) that will ensure oil transport from the Caspian region countries (Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan) and Gulf countries (Iran, Iraq, etc.) totaling up to 10 million tons by 2010, and 20 million tons by 2015.

Ukrainian Oil Transport Scheme

Ukrainian Oil Transport System Capacity and Workload Figures for 2002 - 2005