The starting price of UAH 4.5 billion at which the Odesa Port Plant (OPZ) was put up for privatization in 2025 equals the amount paid by Agro Gas Trading (AGT) to OPZ for natural gas processing in 2019–2021.
This was stated by Oleksandr Gorbunenko, partner at AGT, in an interview with political analyst Yuriy Romanenko.
"It's a paradox upon paradox – let's sell OPZ during wartime at a price four times lower than its debt obligations. Or at a price equal to the volume of payments made to OPZ by AGT over our entire cooperation period. That is, we paid for gas processing into finished products exactly as much as they now want to sell OPZ for," Gorbunenko emphasizes.
In 2019–2021, AGT acted as a tolling partner for OPZ – supplying gas to the plant and paying for its processing into ammonia and carbamide. During this period, OPZ produced nearly 2 million tons of products, 90% of which was exported.
In 2025, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine announced the privatization of the Odesa Port Plant. However, the auction scheduled for November 25, 2025, never took place, and AGT was not allowed to participate in the privatization without explanation. Gorbunenko calls the official reason for the auction's failure, namely "absence of participants," an "unprofessional excuse." Further attempts by AGT to propose to OPZ a launch model based on tolling arrangements were ignored by the plant's management.
Gorbunenko also notes that the privatization revenue indicator laid down in Ukraine's state budget for 2026 at UAH 2 billion is more than twice lower than OPZ's starting price.
"Either the state doesn't believe it will sell OPZ, or the state is concealing intentions to lower the starting price – I find no other explanation," the AGT partner concluded.
It is planned that a repeat privatization auction for OPZ will be held in 2026. Currently, OPZ remains idle, and the plant's facilities are used primarily for grain transshipment.