OREANDA-NEWS. December 2, 2011. Galnaftogaz CEO, Honorary Consul General of the Republic of Lithuania in L’viv Vitaliy Antonov spoke on the 22nd of November at the Ukrainian-Lithuanian business forum in Kyiv with the participation of the two presidents Viktor Yanukovych and Dalia Grybauskaite. Vitaliy Antonov has told about long time collaboration of the company he leads with Lithuanian business partners and expressed hope that after the forum it will be even more effective.

Galnaftogaz is now the greatest Ukrainian importer of Lithuanian oil products produced at Mazeikiai refinery (Orlen Lietuva). In the first ten months of this year the volume of these imports exceeded USD 100 million. Thus, more than 10% of the whole Ukrainian-Lithuanian trade turnover is accounted for trade between Galnaftogaz and Orlen Lietuva. As Viktor Yanukovych noted in his speech at the business forum, our countries now have positive dynamics of bilateral trade volumes which grow steadily, and by the end of the year can exceed pre-crisis level of USD 1 billion.

Vitaliy Antonov noted that Galnaftogaz imports high quality fuel from Lithuania to Ukraine; it meets current EU environmental standards Euro 5 and has not been produced yet at domestic refineries. Later it is being sold through OKKO filling complexes network. It is through contracts with Orlen Lietuva Concern Galnaftogaz can satisfy ever higher needs of Ukrainian motorists in environmentally cleaner and exploitationally efficient gasoline or diesel fuel.

President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite, speaking at business forum on the 22nd of November, stressed that Lithuania is the country which always understands Ukraine and is always ready to expand bilateral cooperation in economics and other fields.

Lithuanian authorities also highly appreciated the work of the honorary consulate general in L’viv. On the 22nd of November Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Audronyus Azhubalis awarded an executive secretary of the consulate Beatriche Belyavtsiv with Lithuanian Diplomacy Star Order for longstanding activities in developing Ukrainian-Lithuanian relations.

Honorary consulate general in L’viv always upholds bilateral cultural and social initiatives. For example, one of the last initiatives was joint Ukrainian-Lithuanian climb to Mount Hoverla to mark the 20th anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence and the struggle of peoples of both countries for their freedom in the twentieth century.