Russian regulatory authorities, namely the Federal Service for Technical and Export Control, are considering a ban on the export of liquefied petroleum gas to Ukraine. As journalists from OilNews found out, this information was confirmed by several sources among Russian LPG suppliers.
According to a representative of trading structures, a similar directive regarding the cessation of diesel fuel supplies has already been communicated to gas exporters. It is expected that similar measures for liquefied gas will be announced in the coming days. At the moment, neither the reasons for this decision nor its duration have been officially disclosed.
It is important to emphasize that the Russian resource occupies more than half of the Ukrainian market — about 51 percent. Moreover, starting from July, a noticeable deficit has been observed in the country's market, which arose due to disruptions in shipments from Russia. This forced operators to seek alternative sources, and in August they were already purchasing gas in Lithuania and even Italy. Wholesale prices for LPG have significantly increased during this time: if at the beginning of July a ton cost 12,000 hryvnias, now it reaches 21,400 hryvnias.
One of the participants in the Ukrainian market believes that a complete halt in supplies from Russia will provoke further price growth. "Now the cost of the resource at the border with Russia has almost equaled the prices of other directions. If supplies from the east stop, we will likely see an activation of sea transportation with transshipment in the Odesa region," the expert notes. Earlier it was reported that the volumes of LPG transit through sea ports in August sharply declined — in particular, the terminal in Chornomorsk has not processed transit gas batches since April 2016.
