Qatari company signs agreement with the Ministry of Development to renew port concession «Olvia» in Mykolaiv

The document was signed by Ruslan Oleinyk, Deputy Director of «Keterminals Olvia», Charles Meeby, Acting Chief Executive Officer of QTerminals, and Andriy Kashuba, Minister of Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine. Photo: Ministry of Development

Qatar's QTerminals is renewing the concession of the specialised seaport «Olvia» in Mykolaiv.

The agreement was signed by three parties: The Ministry of Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, «Kuterminals Olvia» and Qatar's QTerminals.

In a comment to NikVesti, Ruslan Oleinyk, director of the port «Olvia», explained that the port is not currently in the process of resuming operations, as the renewal of the concession is only a procedural decision.

«This is a memorandum stating that the expired contract will be renewed in connection with the adoption of Law №7508. We are now talking exclusively about document flow. After all, how can the port open its operations if we have a closed canal and nothing is mined? There is no way. So now these are purely bureaucratic actions that we have been waiting for for three years. At this stage, this does not change anything for the city, except that we only need to bring the concession agreement in line with today's realities,» explained Ruslan Oleinyk.

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The ministry added that the law «On Public-Private Partnership» №4510-IX will come into force in October 2025. It will, in particular, allow changing the terms of the concession agreement due to force majeure. In other words, the parties will be able to temporarily suspend the concession, change financial terms, and resolve social issues related to the company's employees if necessary.

Ruslan Oleinyk clarified that such changes have not yet been discussed in the context of the concession of the port «Olvia», but there are plans to do so.

«We are just starting to work on it. Previously, there was no legal framework and the mechanism was provided only through the arbitration court. It is very long and expensive. The procedure is very long, so no one was satisfied with it. But now other mechanisms have been opened,» explained Ruslan Oleinyk.

Director of the port «Olvia» Ruslan Oleinyk, photo: Ruslan Oleynik/Facebook

He also added that the port of «Olvia» will not resume its work until the opening of the sea corridor in Mykolaiv region.

«During the war — no. Until shipping is reopened, no port in our region will work,» said Ruslan Oleinyk.

As a reminder, the Mykolaiv port «Olvia» was transferred to Qatar's QTerminals for a 35-year concession on 20 August 2020.

In return, the Qatari company is supposed to invest in the development of the port and Mykolaiv, save jobs for port workers, and pay money to the state for using the port. But this project is currently on hold due to Russia's full-scale invasion.

The Qatari company was supposed to invest 80 million hryvnias in Mykolaiv's infrastructure. It was also supposed to build an underground tunnel in the Korabelnyi district: under the railway tracks to allow trucks to enter the territory of the specialised sea port «Olvia».