Petrol Company Road Maps from Ukraine

Soviet era Ukraine

Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire from 1653 until 1991 when it gained its independence from the former Soviet Union. Although Ukraine has a small indigenous oil industry, it provides under 10% of the country's needs, and most crude oil comes from Russia.

Post-1991 Maps

This reliance on Russia was initially reflected in the post-independence downstream petrol industry, with Russian controlled companies supplying a significant proportion of filling stations. However this is changing as Ukrainian petrol companies have started to consolidate, with the state controlled Ukrnafta leading the way with over 450 outlets. Simultaneously, the Russian firms are looking to invest in better quality company-owned outlets, but to reduce numbers of smaller private stations supplied. The main Russian names are TNK (which operates through its joint venture with Britain's BP) - which at one time had over 1200 stations, Lukoil and (possibly) Yukos. More recently, a Ukrainian company has licensed the use of the Shell brand in the country. With the de facto division of the country in 2015 the situation is likely to change further - a page on this site shows maps of Crimea while part of Ukraine.

OKKO

OKKO is one of largest Ukrainian brands of petrol, owned by Galnaftogaz. Initially operating a chain of Western-style filling stations mainly in the SW of the country, it expanded into Kiev and the Crimea and by 2016 had 399 outlets.

The OKKO sheet map shown here dates from 2005, and is wholly branded for the company on its front cover. It covers the whole of the country at the scale of 1:1,250,000. An atlas of the country from the same year runs to 124 pages of maps, plus a 40 page index to towns and villages. Both were produced by Kartografia; neither mark OKKO station locations.

However, OKKO also sponsored a number of maps or atlases of those parts of Ukraine in which is was most active. In January 2005, OKKO started selling an atlas of the Carpathian region (slightly South of the company's bases in Stryi and Lviv). This ran to 104 A5 pages in total, with the first half given over to high quality maps of the region at 1:250,000. Each page also includes limited tourist information about the localities covered and marks OKKO filling station locations. The 11 largest towns in the region have large scale town plans (typically at 1:15,000). Although the company's branding is not shown on the front cover, OKKO-specific information is included throughout the atlas, which was compiled for them by DIVL Kartografia (Ukrmap).

The next two images are taken from a 2006 street map of Uzhgorod. Although the front cover doesn't mention OKKO and carries a small advert for the Universalva Insurance Company, the rear cover (also shown) is given over to an OKKO advert, and inside all OKKO stations are marked on the map, but no other businesses identified. OKKO's stations are also listed with the facilities available at each one. Drawn again by Kartografia at the large scale of 1:14,000, only 4,000 copies were printed.
Enlarge Ukraine atlas, Carpathian atlas, Uzhgorod cover, Uzhgorod rear cover

Lubricant suppliers

Although Elf petrol has never been sold in Ukraine, Elf oils are promoted by reference to the their success with the Renault Formula 1 team. This atlas of Ukraine dates from 2002 and was one of a number produced by Vidavnictvo "Mapa" (founded 1991) for leading oil companies around the millennium. 12 pages of maps at 1:1,500,000 are supplemented by four pages of advertising for Elf oils, all printed on fairly low grade paper. It is understood that the cartographer produced 4 varieties of covers with logos of Elf; Visco motor oil/BP; Baltia motor oil/KHORT Ukraine; Shell Ukraine.

Western European Issues Well removed from the main tourist routes for visitors from Western Europe, no cross-border issues are known specifically of Ukraine. However the map here, entitled (in German) GUS Ukraine Nord/Mitte · Weißrußland · Rußland [N & C Ukraine, Belarus and Western Russia] is the combined second and third sections from five covering the Western part of the (then) Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS = GUS). Produced by Mairs of Stuttgart in 1994 under the mixed branding of Shell EuroKarte/Marco Polo, the Southern part of Ukraine was on section 4, along with Moldavia and Crimea. Section one covered Russia from St Petersburg to Moscow and section 5 the Black Sea coasts and Caucasus. Mairs' standard cartography was used at a quite generous scale of 1:750,000; these maps were available through bookshops across Europe as well as in German Shell filling stations. Enlarge

Most of the 2000s-era maps came from a contact in the country at the time they were first issued; since then I have had no active contacts, so am unsure whether more maps have been issued over the ensuing decade. No maps are known from any of the other major players, such as TNK, Ukrnafta, Lukoil or Yukos, nor from smaller regional names such as Ukrtatnafta, Paralleli or Gefest. But please send me an e-mail if you have a map from one of these firms in the Ukraine, any maps issued since 2008, or if you have a copy of the Visco-BP, Shell or Baltia-Khort atlases referred to above.

The oil industry in Ukraine remains highly politicised, and is likely to change significantly again in the next few years, once the border disputes with Russia have been resolved.