Fuel for Ukraine 2022

A-95 Consulting Group held the Fuel for Ukraine international conference in Warsaw. The event was hosted with the support of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine and the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine and gathered more than 260 participants from 20 countries.

“Ukraine lost 100% of its pre-war sources of supply of petroleum products, but promptly reoriented itself to imports from Europe. It is a difficult process, but we have already achieved some successes, and in the end we should get a reliable and diversified fuel supply mechanism,” said Serhii Kuyun, director of the A-95 Consulting Group.

Ukrainian companies noted the high level of coordination of efforts with the Government of Ukraine, which made it possible to overcome the acute phase of the fuel crisis, and in the future to increase supplies and implement new investment projects.

“Our joint work with the government, foreign suppliers and institutions has yielded the first results. But we have to continue and strengthen the clear daily coordination. We must explore the perspective that requires larger volumes of fuel and the implementation of investment projects in the field of logistics”, – emphasized the vice-president of OKKO Vasyl Danylyak.

The promotion of responsible consumption should become an important goal of state policy, according to Taras Panasyuk, head of the commercial department of the WOG network. “Fuel economy at such a time is a necessary measure. At the level of our network and our partners, we have already started a campaign on rational consumption. Such a campaign should be conducted at the national level,” believes Mr Panasyuk.

The main challenge for Europe and the world, and accordingly for Ukraine at the moment, is the rejection of Russian energy sources. Analytical reports at the Warsaw conference were made by representatives of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Wood Mackenzie, OPIS by Dow Jones and Argus Media. All of them noted a shortage of oil products on the world market due to the recovery of the economy after COVID-19 and the uncertain future of the consequences of the anti-Russian oil embargo.

According to Markus Lippold, head of the Ukrainian energy support group at the European Commission, the looming crisis requires the most coordinated actions of state institutions and private companies.

“All the problems related to the reorientation of supplies, which Ukraine faced today, will appear before the EU countries during the reorientation of flows. The situation is not easy, but there is still time to prepare. The perspective requires greater mobility from all of us and higher decision-making speed at all stages,” said Mr Lippold.

As Ulrich Benterbusch from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Environmental Protection of Germany noted in his speech, the discussion of problematic issues in a wide circle yields an excellent result.

“This cooperation is necessary. Everyone at their own level sees problems that others do not, so we should conduct such communication regularly,” said Mr. Benterbusch, proposing to hold a similar event in Germany.

“We heard that Europe and the world are ready to help Ukraine, but it is not always clear to our partners what exactly they should do and what opportunities Ukraine brings to Europe. It is too early for us to calm down, we must continue to actively work with our European friends,” summarized Serhii Kuyun.