Interfax cited Mr Pavel Ovcharenko chairman of Ukrtatnafta as saying that the oil refinery in Ukraine has started to produce EUR 4 standard diesel fuel from oil supplied by the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic.

Mr Ovcharenko also said the Azerbaijani oil would enable the refinery to produce Euro-3 standard gasoline. He said the new diesel would hit the market within days.

Ukrtatnafta and SOCAR have signed a long term supply deal for 240,000 tonnes of oil per month delivered through the Pridneprovsky pipeline network.

Mr Ovcharenko said Ukrtatnafta planned to refine approximately 420,000 tonnes of crude in October. He said 240,000 tonnes of this would be Azerbaijani, 80,000 tonnes Kazakh and the rest Ukrainian oil.

The first Azerbaijani oil arrived on October 8th. The refinery aims to be processing 500,000 tonnes to 600,000 tonnes of crude per month thanks to the Azerbaijani supplies.

(Sourced from Interfax)