KAZAN, Oct. 22 – The shareholder dispute involving Ukraine’s biggest oil refinery has resulted in Russia's Tatneft not currently delivering oil to UkrTatNafta (based in Kremenchuk, Poltava region), Tatneft press secretary Rustam Rafikov told Interfax.

"We are not delivering oil to Ukraine," he said, noting that supplies were cut off on Friday and have not been resumed.

The company's oil and oil products sales department also confirmed to Interfax that Tatneft has not resumed oil supplies to UkrTatNafta. Transneft suspended oil supplies along this route, the company said.

Tatneft, which is the main supplier of crude to the refinery, halted supplies to UkrTatNafta on Friday morning, but was later forced to resume supplies, a Tatneft representative told Interfax earlier.

The representative said Tatneft shareholders on Monday asked a court in Tatarstan to enforce the suspension in supplies, but it did not say which court.

"The Tatneft shareholders were considered with the situation at Kremenchuk, which could cause serious financial problems for the Russian company. Tatneft could suffer huge losses since there aren't any guarantees that UkrTatNafta is currently capable of paying for oil," the Tatneft representative said.

It was reported earlier that the Sumy court of appeals has reinstated Pavlo Ovcharenko as CEO of UkrTatNafta. "Sumy Court of Appeals, acting under the instruction of Supreme court of Ukraine, by its ruling of Aug. 29, left unchanged the ruling of Avtozavodsky district court of Kremenchuk on restoring Pavel Volodymyryvych [Ovcharenko] to his position as board chairman of UkrTatNafta," Ovcharenko's lawyer Yuriy Ocheptsov told Interfax-Ukraine.

Ovcharenko headed UkrTatNafta until September 2004, when the company's supervisory council dismissed him and appointed Hlushko.

However, UkrTatNafta CEO Serhiy Hlushko said the refinery had been seized and that he had been removed.

Rustam Minnikhanov, the prime minister of Tatarstan and chairman of Tatneft's board of directors, urged the Ukrainian president and government to intervene in the situation on Friday.

Ukrainian national oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrayiny has been challenging the legality of transferring 18.296% of the shares in UkrTatNafta to two companies friendly to Tatneft - Seagroup International Inc (United States) and Amruz Trading AG (Switzerland) - for years.

The disputed 18% was canceled at the end of May and transferred from nominal holder ING Bank Ukraine to Naftogaz Ukrayiny. The stake owned by Naftogaz increased from 43.054% to 61.346%.

The shareholders from Tatarstan protested. They had controlled more than 55% of the UkrTatNafta shares: Tatarstan's Property and Land Resources Ministry owned 28.778%, Tatneft - 8.613% and Seagroup International and Amruz Trading - 18.296%.

The Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Ministry moved to replace the refinery's management this year, but no decision was reached due to the conflict between the refinery's shareholders. (om/ez)