RUSSIA'S OIL THROUGH UKRAINE UP

PLATTS - Ukraine's transit of Russian oil for export to the European Union increased 13.5% year-on-year to 1.345 million mt in September from 1.184 million mt in September 2018, although it was down from 1.39 million mt shipped in August, state oil shipper UkrTransNafta said Thursday.

Oil transit has been recovering from a major disruption earlier this year, when supplies through the Druzhba oil pipeline were suspended due to a problem with contamination of Russian crude.

"The company continues to catch up with the untapped volumes caused by the suspension of the operation of the Druzhba pipeline in April-May," UkrTransNafta said.

UkrTransNafta suspended oil transit to markets in Europe on April 25, but resumed the transit on May 11 after a massive international effort to remove the contamination from the system. However, it was forced to suspend oil transit again between May 17 and May 21.

In January through September, Ukraine's transit of Russian crude to the EU decreased by 5.1% year-on-year, or by 500,000 mt, to 9.37 million mt, down from 9.87 million mt shipped in January-September 2018.

Ukraine moves Russian oil to Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The oil transit capacity of Ukraine's section of the Druzhba pipeline is about 25 million mt/year (500,000 b/d).

The company's total shipments of oil, including transit and domestic supplies, fell 2.6% on the year to 11.125 million mt in the first nine months of the year.

In September, Ukrainian pipelines delivered 236,000 mt of crude to domestic consumers, up from 161,300 mt in September 2018 and up from 227,700 mt the previous month.

Oil supplies to domestic consumers were the highest for over four-and-a-half years, according to UkrTransNafta.

The company shipped 1.76 million mt of oil to domestic consumers in January-September, up 13.5% from 1.55 million mt a year ago.

In 2018, Ukraine's transit of Russian oil decreased by 4.3% to 13.3 million mt from 13.9 million mt shipped in 2017.

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