Ukraine's battered Odesa Port Plant (OPP), which has been standing idle since late April 2018, restarted its operations in early August, according to the company's first deputy director Mykola Schurikov.

The state has tried to privatise the indebted plant several times already but failed to attract any bidders thanks to its debts to oligarchs. OPP's debts for supplied natural gas before the nation's state-owned natural gas monopoly Naftogaz exceed UAH1.5bn ($60mn) plus penalties.

"After more than a year of downtime, OPP launched production of ammonia and carbamide," Schurikov wrote on his Facebook page this week. "Although there are a few days of hassle ahead, we can say that we are in the finishing straight."

OPP relaunched operations under a contract of toll processing with Ukrainian company Agro Gas Trading. According to an agreement between OPP and this firm, the minimum period of cooperation between the companies will be four months with the possibility of further extension as agreed by the supervisory board of the refinery.

Each month, OPP should receive about 60mn cubic meters (mcm) of natural gas, Schurikov added.

Ukrainian and foreign investors have had no interest in privatisation of OPP over the past years due to its disastrous financial conditions, despite the fact that former Ukrainian economy minister Aivaras Abromavicius was trying to present OPP as a crown jewel of the country's privatisation.

In 2018, the starting price in the privatisation of OPP was cut by 10-times to $54mn, however, even now there are serious doubts that the government will be able to sell its 99.567% stake in OPP. In December 2017, Kyiv failed to sell the stake via a second privatisation tender.

On July 29, Ukrainian company Agro Gas Trading said that the contract with the plant was signed by December 1, and foresees delivery of minimum 240mn cubic meters (mcm) of natural gas to OPP within four months.

Deputy head of the State Property Fund (SPF) Yevhen Astashev said that Naftogaz gave a green light to resuming of the works despite plant's debts worth UAH1.5bn plus penalties, according to Interfax.

The plant for its part is obliged to pay off the debts to Naftogaz sharing profits received from Agro Gas Trading for providing processing services ($1.5 per each carbamide tonne and $1 per each ammonia tonne).

In 2018, OPP almost halved net loss year-on-year to UAH750mn.

In February, head of Odesa regional state administration Maksym Stepanov said that OPP could be transferred to the management or lease to the nation's state-owned natural gas monopoly Naftogaz or the Agrarian Fund.

According to the official, such measures will contribute to the launch of the plant "not for a month or two, but for a long time", Interfax news agency reported on February 22. Stepanov added that possible transfer of the plant to the management or lease to the Agrarian Fund was discussed with the government in Kyiv earlier this month.