The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has allowed Karpatneftekhim LLC to purchase and import up to 147,000 tons of benzene and aromatic hydrocarbon mixtures on preferential terms, the Agency for Industrial Policy of Ukraine said.

The relevant decision was made by the government at a meeting in Kiev on Wednesday. In addition, the Cabinet of Ministers has limited quotas for the free importation and purchase of certain types of petroleum products for the Karpatnaftohim.

In particular, if in April the government allowed Karpatneftekhim on preferential terms to purchase light distillates of three types for 1170 million liters for each category, now the total volume for all three types of such raw materials is limited to 1170 million liters.

In addition, if earlier the Cabinet of Ministers allowed Karpatneftekhim preferential purchase of heavy distillates of four types of 985 million liters for each category, now the total volume for all four types of such raw materials is limited to 1170 million liters.

Also, a restriction was introduced for liquefied gas and butane – previously the enterprise was allowed to purchase 1070 million liters on preferential terms for each category of such raw materials, and now the total volume for all 13 types is limited to 1,070 million liters.

The purpose of imposing restrictions is to prevent the possible sale of preferential petroleum products in the domestic market, instead of being used as raw material for the production of ethylene.

As it was informed earlier, in July Karpatneftekhim exported 5.1 thousand tons of finished products.

As previously reported by the Market Report, Karpatneftekhim resumed work on June 9 after five years of downtime. It was also reported that on July 6, the production of low-pressure polyethylene (HDPE) was resumed.

In February 2017, Lukoil completed a deal to sell a 100% stake in LUKOIL Chemical B.V. (Netherlands), which belongs to Karpatneftekhim. Techinservice Limited bought from Lukoil up to 50% of Karpatneftekhim. The total amount of the transaction was USD25 million. The second indirect owner of over 50% in LLC “Karpatneftekhim” through the Cyprus Xedrian Holding Ltd was Lukoil manager in Ukraine Ilham Mammadov.

The production at Karpatneftekhim was terminated in September 2012. Earlier, the plant repeatedly noted the existence of problems in the activities due to the state’s debts for the reimbursement of export VAT and dumping of foreign, in particular, American producers of PVC – one of the main commodity positions of the Karpatneftekhim.

Karpatneftekhim (Kalush, Ivano-Frankivsk region) – was a subsidiary of LUKOIL-Neftekhim and is the largest producer of polymers in Ukraine. The company produces polyolefins (ethylene and propylene), polyethylene, chlorine, polyvinyl chloride and caustic soda. The enterprise’s capacities allow producing 300 thousand tons of ethylene, 100 thousand tons of HDPE, 180 thousand tons of caustic soda and 300 thousand tons of PVC per year.