According to the agency's data, in 2004 the company sold more than 1.8 million tons of gasoline, while its consumption in Ukraine amounted to 4.56 million tons.
However, as "Ekonomika" reports, these data diverge somewhat from official statistics.
According to the Ministry of Fuel and Energy, the trading house "TNK-Ukraine" sold only 1.35 million tons of gasoline, or about 29% of the market. According to Ukrainian legislation, a company occupies a monopoly position if its share in a segment exceeds 35%.
According to the AMC, today the refineries "LiNOS" and "UkrTatNafta" jointly occupy about 60% of the market. Moreover, the Kremenchuk plant is designed to process about 18 million tons of raw materials per year, and the Lysychansk plant - 16 million tons. At the same time, the capacity of all domestic plants is about 50 million tons per year.
The AMC claims that "LiNOS" and "UkrTatNafta" did not provide the agency with any evidence of competition between them.
On the basis of the foregoing, the antimonopoly committee recognized the position of the mentioned companies as monopolistic. So far, the committee has not envisaged any penalties for the oil companies, however Kostusiev stated that the enterprises must take the AMC's decision into consideration and not abuse their strong position in the oil products market in the future.
According to the publication's analysts, in the current conditions, when three of the six Ukrainian refineries - Odesa, Drohobych, and Kherson - are shut down, the shares of the remaining players in the market may change noticeably.