Akhmetov's energy company DTEK ventures into oil production, announces oil refinery plans

Ukraine's largest private energy company DTEK begins oil production in Poltava Oblast, CEO of the company, Maksym Timchenko, announced during a press conference on Wednesday.

DTEK is starting to develop the field, for which it acquired a license in 2021. The company plans to finish drilling the first oil well in Poltava Oblast by the end of October. In addition, the company is going to purchase licenses for oil fields in western Ukraine.

"Oil production is a very important direction for us. We will become one of the players in the full cycle, starting from oil production, through deep processing and to the final product," Forbes quotes the DTEK CEO.

The transition from an extractive company to a vertically integrated deep-refining oil business could take three to five years, according to Timchenko.

As soon as the company produces enough oil, it will move to investments in refining. DTEK is not planning to buy a plant. Instead, it will build its own using modern technologies.

In total, by the end of the year, the company plans to drill nine wells, which is three times more than in 2022.

In July 2023, the state-owned largest gas producer Ukrgazvydobuvannya drilled the deepest well in its history.