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Ukraine posts big drop in output of gasoline

President Viktor Yanukovich said earlier the growth of domestic demand for coal will predestine a permanent increase of its production

KIEV, July 17 (Itar-Tass) - Production of gasoline in Ukraine slid by 48% from January through to June 2013 versus the same period of the previous year to stand at 510,000 tons, the State Service for Statistics said Wednesday.

The data it released says the primary refining of crude oil at the national refineries and the Shebelinka gas processing plant totaled 1.5 million tons in the first six months of the year, marking a 40.2% drop from the indicators for January-June 2012.

The State Service on Statistics said Ukrainian companies produced 81,200 tons of gasoline in June - down 29.9% from June 2012.

In March 2012, one of the biggest refineries that is located in the eastern town of Lisichansk was closed down for a technology troubleshooting and overhaul. Its outage affected the volumes of gasoline output nationwide.

The Lisichansk plant is now expected to resume operations this autumn. Also, the Odessa refinery is expected to restart the refining activity soon after a break of almost three years.

Ukraine has six refineries that are located in Kremenchug, Lisichansk, Odessa, Nadvornaya, Drogobych, and Kherson. Gasoline is also produced by the Shebelinka gas processing plant.

All the refineries have a combined refining capacity for 50.3 million tons of crude.

From January through to June Ukraine reduced the output of coal by 4.7% to 30.5 mln tons compared with the same period a year ago. The coalmines put out 30.5 mln tons of the fuel.

In June 2013, the output of coal stood at 5.1 million tons, which is 5% less than in June 2012.

Officials at the Energy and Coalmining Ministry say the drop in output comes from the oversupply of coal to the storage facilities of thermal power plants.

In 2012, the production of coal nationwide went up 4.3% to 64.7 mln tons.

President Viktor Yanukovich said earlier the growth of domestic demand for coal will predestine a permanent increase of its production. He set forth the task of ensuring the output of the fuel at a level of 100 mln tons to 105 mln tons annually.