Rosneft and Tatneft think of leaving the Ukraine

Russian oil companies, which operate in the Ukraine, - Rosneft and Tatneft - may leave the country following Lukoil, Russian analysts think.

The largest Russian private oil company announced its withdrawal from the retail market of the Ukraine. Lukoil is selling its 240 filling stations and 6 tank farms in the Ukraine to the Austrian company AMIC Energy Management GmbH. The parties are currently preparing to sign a sales contract. The financial part of the transaction wasn’t disclosed.

The President and co-owner of Lukoil, Vagit Alekperov announced the reasons for this decision.

"This year, our sales (of oil products in the Ukraine) fell by 42%. In addition, a number of our filling stations was blocked All of these factors have encouraged us to accelerate the sales process," – Alekperov admitted a few hours after the announcement of the transaction.

The zone of risk

The fact that the Ukrainian filling stations of Lukoil in Ivano-Frankivsk were blocked by soldiers of the "Right sector" became known on July 29th.

A source, familiar with the situation, says that in fact the blockade began on July 24th, but until recently Lukoil didn’t want to attract attention of the public and insisted on arrival of the OSCE’s delegation. However, even after the OSCE documented and disclosed this fact,the "Right sector" didn’t go away.