Ukrainian oil and gas industry increases output

Apr. 8, 1998 Ukraine has increased the output of its oil and gas industry in the first quarter of this year, the head of the Ukrainian Oil and Gas Committee Mikhail Kovalko said.
The growth amounted to 7.3 % as compared to the similar period of last year, and resulted from an 11 % increase of oil refineries' load and a 3.6 % rise in the gas extraction. The latter went up by 111 million cubic meters, while the oil extraction dropped by 42,800 tonnes. The drilling went up by 12 % in March, Kovalko said.
Ukrainian oil refineries worked at 25.4 % of their capacity in the first quarter of this year as against 22 % in the first quarter of 1997.
The capacity of Ukrainian oil refineries enable to process 52.4 mm tonnes of oil a year. Most of the oil is supplied from Russia.