State-owned public joint-stock company Ukrtransnafta is holding talks with three oil refineries of the Privat Group how to return over 380,000 tonnes of crude oil that was transferred to them for storage. The company is trying to stop spending on storage of oil at third parties.

"After a stocktaking it was revealed that the quality characteristics of a small amount of crude oil transferred for storage (less than 20%). However, according to the law, these claims could be announced only when oil is returned," the company said on its website on Thursday.

The state-run company said that if at the moment of returning the oil the storing party fails to return it in the required quality, the legislation envisages the scheme for receiving compensation.

Ukrtransnafta said that court hearings with the oil refineries concern adequacy and grounds for the cost of oil storage services, not the compensation for non-compliance with the quality of crude oil transferred earlier.

Earlier, Board Chairman of Naftogaz of Ukraine Andriy Kobolev in an interview with the Ekonomichna Pravda spoke in favor of receiving cash compensation for poor-quality oil. He expects that the problem of storage of Ukrtransnafta's oil at the refineries of the Privat Group would be resolved before the end of this year.