Ukrainian economic journalist Oleksandr Dubynskiy has repeatedly tried to show himself an evangelist of the oil product market of Ukraine in his materials and posts, often accusing Ukrainian gas filling stations and oil companies of corruption and ineptitude.
Oil market experts have conducted fact checking of his statements, videos, texts and discovered multiple manipulations, fact juggling, regular lies and value judgments – all the things that should not by typical of a professional journalist. At that, many signs point to the fact that Oleksandr is working for the infamous Privat Group, to which a number of factors point.
Below are the texts of two posts by Serhiy Kuyun, a respected professional and expert in the oil market, editor of industrial publication Enkorr. Together with the colleagues, he is outraged by dishonorably actions of the failed oil critic Oleksandr Dubynskiy.
No to fakes! I’ve been wanting to start fact checking of Oleksandr Dubynskiy’s statements regarding oil market for a long time, but couldn’t get around to it. But now the scale of his manipulations exceeded all boundaries!
In his latest video blog, 1+1 host accused WOG gas station chain of selling oil products diluted with donkey’s urine. The journalist does not support his accusations with any evidence. That’s is not surprising! I will say with all responsibility that unlike other manipulations in the video, this is a total lie. Why?
According to the estimates of Consulting Group A-95, the sales of the said chain amount to at least 2.5 million liters per day or 75 mn l of fuel per month. There is a sense in diluting anything only if you add over 10% of the component, otherwise there will not be any economic effect. Thus, following Dubynskiy’s logic, WOG daily needs 250,000 l of the component. I understand that there are plenty of ‘donkeys’ in our country, but to be able to collect this amount, you need to have a branched out network of collection centers and there is no information that they exist. In case this scheme was real functioning, it would also require a park of specialized transport, the presence of which also hasn’t been established.
“What if they import?” Dubynskiy will tell us. I studied the database of the Customs Service in detail and did not find any data about import of the ‘donkey’s’ component. Finally, no malfunctions of the engines that were involved in testing of this fuel were discovered.
Thus, we have the first hard fact of dissemination of false information!
Contrary to ungrounded confidence of Dubynskiy, I’d like to express an assumption
that such messages regularly appear on 1+1 Channel and individuals connected to
it due to the fight of Ihor Kolomoyskiy and Ihor Palitsa for the inheritance of
Ihor Yeremieiev. The two individuals reached an agreement with the widow of the
deceased on the legal and media support with the objective of giving her the
right to claim Yeremeyev’s share in Continium Group, WOG chain being a part of
it. The problem is that Yeremeyev left his share to the children and not the
wife, who has involved British lawyers, paid for by the two individuals, is
trying to transfer it to herself. According to the available information, in
case of success Palitsa will get the priority to buy out this share from the
widow. I cannot rule out that in order to avoid this scenario, Continium Group
shareholders are taking actions to prevent it.
In the second post, the expert uncovers a number of lies and manipulations.
We continue the oil fact checking of blogger and 1+1 host Oleksandr Dubynskiy, who is factually the spokesperson of Ihor Kolomoyskiy, who is using the Dubynskiy to say ‘hi’ to his opponents. I envy Oleksandr a bit, because in the new video blog he speaks about oil products, nuclear fuel, immigrant workers, global crisis and even sex. He is an expert in so many areas! Plus, he uses swear words, speaks with vigor, in an allegedly clear language. But let’s take a look at how much truth there is in part where Oleksandr speaks about oil.
About the prices at gas stations
So, he quite correctly noted that the oil prices dropped 40%. He draws a logical parallel with the prices at gas filling stations, which, according to Dubynskiy, dropped 15% at most. The people have been fooled once again – that is the typical conclusion Dubynskiy draws.
In truth, gasoline prices dropped not by 15%, but by 10%, diesel fuel – 9.1%. That, however, is not the issue. Dubynskiy’s logic would have been appropriate had the prices for oil products in Ukraine were composed 100% from oil prices, as is the case in the USA, for examples, where the taxes for fuel are minimal. In Ukraine, oil’s share in the cost of fuel at gas stations is 45% (the rest are taxes, expenses and naturally trader’s revenues). Even Oleksandr can calculate that if this component dropped by 40%, the cost must decrease by 18%. So far, the cost decreased by 10% out of 18% and, accordingly, there is still potential for decrease by 8% or around UAH 2.5 per liter. The process is under way, though it is slower than desired. On the other hand, as price monitoring at gas stations in Europe shows, the decrease rates there are the same or even slightly lower (10% for gasoline and around 8% for diesel fuel). So slow process of price decrease seems to be an international feature of this business. But, once again, ‘it ain’t over until it’s over’.
However, the most important thing Oleksandr does not speak about, or maybe simply doesn’t know is that the prices at gas stations in Ukraine largely depend on… his employer Ihor Kolomoyskiy. The latter controls the largest gas station chain in the country, which has 25% of the market (UkrNafta, Avias, ANP, etc.). So Dubynskiy should address his claims primarily to his patron. I hope Oleksandr will do just that as soon as he meets his employer.
About the pipe
Then the blogger goes to the main, as far as I understand, part of his speech, for the sake of which such blogs are being recorded in the first place (you didn’t think that it is done to protect people’s interests, did you?). Here, the classical trick of propagandists is used: a little bit of truth and then, you know. The blogger believes that the reason of high prices is in the operation of the oil product pipeline that delivers 40% of diesel fuel consumed by Ukraine. Let’s step back and simply take a look at the figures. On the diagram we can see that the wholesale prices for the diesel fuel from the pipe fully correspond to the external market’s dynamics. So regardless of who benefits from these supplies (Dubynskiy mentions Medvedchuk in this context), he sets market prices.
1+1 host sums up his video by saying that we buy fuel
from the pipe, thus paying for the election campaign of Poroshenko, Boyko,
Medvedchuk, etc. So, what about the 25% of the gas station market owned by
Kolomoyskiy, who, as we discussed above, is not in a hurry to reduce prices? It
turns out that 25% of consumers are paying for the election campaign of
Tymoshenko, Zelenskiy, Kyva, Taruta and whoever else Ihor Kolomoyskiy supports?
Moreover, Kolomoyskiy’s structures also purchase Russian diesel fuel from the
pipe and then sell it through its stations.
So why would one post such blogs? It’s simple: Kolomoyskiy is inflicting a
double blow – firstly on Poroshenko, as he is the key political competitor of
the politicians supported by the oligarch and secondly on the competitors in
the fuel business. As we can see the truth is more complicated and, probably,
more boring that the video blog of our hero flavored with strong language. The
most disappointing thing is whom can you believe then? If the information about
fuel is so ambiguous, how can you treat expert’s thoughts on sex?!))) Well,
that is one thing you shouldn’t joke about!)
