Ukrtatnafta’s strategic Kremenchuk refinery may be declared bankrupt due to the actions of Sergiy Koretsky. This is stated in a post by MP Oleksiy Kucherenko, who published on his Facebook page, reports [Kommersant].
He emphasises that Koretsky uses his dual appointment to manipulate financial flows between the two state-owned companies.
According to Kucherenko, it has recently emerged that Koretsky’s goal was to siphon money from one company to the other, effectively driving the former into bankruptcy. At the same time, he received a huge salary in both companies and fanned the myth of his success. However, little is known about Ukrtatnafta’s operations and financial reports.
The published report for the first half of 2024 confirmed the experts’ conclusions about Ukrnafta’s fictitious profits. It is noted that the cost of goods sold in this period (UAH 31.52 billion) is 2.2 times higher than the cost of goods sold in the first half of 2023 (UAH 14.27 billion), while gross revenue only increased by 25%. This situation is in line with the market growth in gas and oil prices. It is noted that there are facts of Ukrnafta’s transactions with oil products at low cost. In addition, it is quite logical to link the decline in Ukrnafta’s profits to the claims that the company has filed against Ukrtatnafta (both companies are run by Mr Koretskyi) for about UAH 6 billion, which corresponds to a decline in Ukrnafta’s profits in 2024.
In addition, the MP writes that it has recently become known that Ukrtatnafta’s Kremenchuk refinery was destroyed by the military operations in 2022. However, until then, the tanks contained Ukrnafta’s oil, which had to be processed to produce petroleum products. In fact, Ukrtatnafta’s management made the right decision by refining the oil and storing the necessary petroleum products for the country. In November 2022, the Ministry of Defence acquired a controlling stake in Ukrtatnafta, and Koretsky took over the company. During this period, he conducted an inventory of oil and petroleum products, while also recording the absence of oil and filing charges of theft with law enforcement agencies. However, in 2022, the country needed oil products, not oil.
Koretsky then accounted for the surplus oil products at zero cost and sold them to Ukrnafta, which he also heads. Ukrnafta sold the oil products at market prices and made a high profit. However, these facts became public knowledge and were disseminated by the media. Overall, Mr Koretskyi’s covert manipulations demonstrate his dishonest approach and his desire to personally enrich himself at the expense of state-owned companies.
In conclusion, Oleksiy Kucherenko called on the authorities to intervene in the situation to prevent a financial catastrophe for Ukrtatnafta, as its activities are critical to the country’s wartime fuel supply.