Director of ZPEK Oleg Chikyda spoke about the reorientation of fuel supplies

July's shortage of supply in the south forced Ukrainian fuel companies to look for resources at the western border. The Western Fuel and Energy Company (WFEC) is among those that quickly increased imports from other sources. Company co-owner Oleh Chykyda told this to comments ZN.UA.

«The increase in supplies at the western border was driven by a shortage of supply in the south. We managed to quickly increase imports from alternative sources, although these were expensive spot supplies,» noted Oleg Chykyda.

The ZPEK group of companies was founded by Oleh Chykyda together with partners in 2022, and in a short time it has become a prominent player in the fuel market. The company has its own logistics and infrastructure, stably imports over 30 thousand tons of fuel monthly, and ranks among the TOP-10 diesel fuel importers in Ukraine. In addition to its core business, under the leadership of Oleh Chykyda, ZPEK supports social and veteran initiatives.

There were several factors behind the market turmoil in July. As Sergey Kuyun, director of the «A-95» Consulting Group, explains, security threats reduced water supplies, and freight and insurance rates rose, and due to shallow waters on the Danube, barges were operating at only 30–50% capacity.

To this were added restrictions elsewhere as well. For instance, Poland's ORLEN reduced quotas for Ukrainian companies by 20-30% in August, citing technical reasons.

When is maritime logistics got stuck, part of the cargo was shifted to trucks, and this increased diesel fuel consumption in the country. Large industrial consumers also began buying fuel more actively, so sometimes wholesale prices were higher than retail ones.

And yet, import volumes did not fall, but rather increased. For calculations «In July, 562,000 metric tons of »A-95” diesel fuel were imported, 5% more than last year. Gasoline imports totaled 196,000 metric tons, the highest figure since August 2025.

By the end of the month, the amount of fuel delivered by cars across the western border had also noticeably increased. More expensive than traditional routes, this way nevertheless allowed the market to quickly patch the shortage of resources from other directions.

According to Kuiun's forecast, physical fuel should be sufficient as early as the second half of August, since importers have pre-contracted larger volumes.