Energy

 told Bloomberg yesterday in Warsaw. Under the headline, “Shock CEO Ouster Pushes Ukrainian Gas Giant’s Backer to Brink,” Bloomberg writes: “The EBRD, along with the World Bank, is a key international backer of Naftogaz, helping to give one of Ukraine’s largest companies more financial heft as well as bond-market credibility.”

. On April 30, Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers suspended the Naftogaz Supervisory Board and installed Yuriy Vitrenko as CEO. “We were very unhappy and we made that very clear,” Renaud-Basso said. “We hope it’s a one-off, and not a sign of really backtracking in [corporate governance].”

with the Kyiv District Administrative Court to cancel the order issued to him Monday by the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption to cancel the appoint of Yuriy Vitrenko as Naftogaz CEO. Shmyhal has said the issued should be resolved by the end of next week. The Court says it is reviewing the request.

, says Andriy Prokofiev, head of customer service for Ukraine’s Transmission System Operator. Azeri gas could cross Turkey, then come north to Ukraine through Bulgaria and Romania on the Trans-Balkan pipeline. “The GTS Ukraine operator continues to cooperate with partners from Romania and Moldova on the development of natural gas transportation along the Trans-Balkan route in order to increase import capacity,” he said after a meeting of a Ukrainian-Azerbaijani working group on energy cooperation.

, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said after meeting with Central Asian diplomats. Ukraine’s Black Sea ports would be the entry points to Europe and Turkmenbashi port would be the entry to Central Asia. At the same time, Yuriy Vitrenko, Naftogaz CEO, is lobbying the US and the EU to force Gazprom to allow Central Asian gas to flow through Ukraine to the EU.

United Mining and Chemical Company in August; Azov Shipyard in September; Bolshevik site in October; Hotel President in November, and by December two small Black Sea ports – Belgorod-Dnister and Ust-Dunaisk.

will go on sale in March 2022. Odesa Port Plant, the chemical producer, is to go on sale in April 2022.

 Bloomberg has reported.  However if the three government members of the 6-member Board boycott the meeting, the dismissal would be blocked, wrote Concorde Capital. The Cabinet is opposed to the dismissal and Justice Minister Denys Malyuska says he plans fight the June 15 suspension order by  the National Agency on Corruption Prevention.

, the Economy Ministry has report. Over the investment cycle the project could grow to €1.5 billion, providing jobs for 10,000 workers, the Ministry said. With projects in 25 countries, Amsterdam-based Bontrup says of its mission: “We innovate with nature to create new opportunities for sustainable infrastructures, offshore developments, logistics and agricultural production.”

 The National Agency on Corruption Prevention said the Cabinet violated conflict of interest laws by moving Vitrenko on April 28 from his post as acting Energy Minister to CEO of the state energy company. Last night, Clare Spottiswoode, Chair of the Naftogaz Supervisory Board, called on Vitrenko to step down for 10 days until the legal wrangle is resolved.

saying that Ukraine’s Cabinet controls Naftogaz, not the Energy Ministry. In a Naftogaz press release, he said that as acting Energy Minister for four months this year, he did not have the right to vote in Cabinet meetings. Vitrenko cited the case of Yevhen Kravtsov, who as shifted in 2017 from First Deputy Infrastructure Minister to CEO of Ukrzaliznytsia. The Infrastructure Ministry has direct control over the state railroad.

. Prime Minister Shmyhal set a 10-day deadline to resolve the impasse. The challenge to Vitrenko comes as Naftogaz closely watches today’s Biden-Putin meeting in Geneva for news on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Last week, Vitrenko was in Washington, meeting with congressional representatives and journalists to campaign against the Russia-Germany bypass gas line, which is 95% complete.

announced Yuriy Vitrenko, the new Naftogaz CEO (FT). “We are talking about tens of billions of cubic meters…Central Asian gas alone can fill the whole Ukrainian gas transit system,” Vitrenko said. For the last 15 years, Russia has blocked gas from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan from flowing to the EU. As a result, these nations encouraged China to build a gas pipeline east. Since 2009, the Central Asia–China Gas Pipeline moves gas 7,000 km, from Turkmenistan to Shanghai.

 Vitrenko said he would appeal to EU competition authorities and take Gazprom to international arbitration. In 2018, the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal ruled in favor of Naftogaz in a dispute with Gazprom, awarding Ukraine’s oil and gas company $4.6 billion. Vitrenko led the Naftogaz legal team that won the dispute.

, the Russia-German gas pipeline that Russia built to bypass Ukraine. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, told Germany’s Welt newspaper that Ukraine “will consider” negotiations on compensation for loss of Gazprom transit fees due to the bypass pipeline.  With compensation talk growing, he said: “The gas pipeline should be used as a lever to encourage Russia to play a constructive role in the peace process in eastern Ukraine.” In Washington, Vitrenko released a video saying that if the Biden Administration

, reports Serhiy Makogon, Director General of Ukraine’s Gas Transmission System Operator.  Although work is to be completed by this time next year, the cross border pipeline links will be inadequate for Ukraine to meet its goal of receiving from Poland 6.6 billion cubic meters – slightly more than half of Ukraine’s total annual imports. Referring to Poland’s Baltic liquefied natural gas landing terminal on the Baltic, Makogon said: “”We are actively working on creating alternative gas supply routes to

, Lana Zerkal, Energy Minister advisor, charged in an interview Saturday on Ukraine 24 TV. “Russia is artificially holding back the European market and is not supplying the volumes that Europe needs now, for example, to fill empty gas storage facilities,” Zerkal, a former Naftogaz official, said. “It was a cold spring. Now we need to fill everything, and gas prices are very high.”

, Volodomyr Gnoevoy, head transit for YE Energia, said Thursday at the Ukrainian Gas Open Forum. Designed to carry 400 billion cubic meters, the system now carries 30 bcm for domestic consumption and 40 bcm for transit. If Russia stops sending gas across Ukraine at the end of the 2024 contract, “all this financial burden will fall on the shoulders of domestic consumers,” he said.

From now on, Ukraine’s state-owned oil and gas company will not “crowd out” foreign energy companies, he promised during a US-Ukraine Business Council webinar yesterday. Speaking from Washington, Vitrenko, a Naftogaz veteran, said he was behind many of the post-Maidan, free market reforms adopted at the company. Edward Chow, a former US energy company executive and a panelist, welcomed the 44-year-old Vitrenko, saying: “You have been preparing all your life for this job.”

, Nord Stream 2 AG reports. Testing with gas is part of commissioning process. The 1,230 km pipeline should be completed by early August, President Putin said last week. Commissioning is expected to be completed this fall.

under a contract signed yesterday between the US company and Energoatom, Ukraine’s state company responsible for nuclear power generation. To reduce dependency on Russian nuclear fuel, Energoatom switches a seventh reactor later this year to fuel supplied by Westinghouse Electric Sweden. In 2024, a second reactor at the Rivne nuclear plant is to make the switch, Westinghouse reports.

 Herman Galushchenko, Ukraine’s new Energy Minister, said: “Ukraine is interested in deepening cooperation with Westinghouse, as diversification of nuclear fuel supply is a guarantee of energy security.”

 speaker after speaker warned yesterday at the European-Ukrainian Energy Day forum in Kyiv. “Electricity trading cross the border may no longer bring in funds for needed investments,” warned Mats Lundin, chairman of the EU Energy Agency. “Steel exports may no longer be a viable business for the large Ukrainian industries that we have learnt to rely on for job opportunities and tax revenues.”

” noted Matti Massikas, head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine. “Ukrainian industry pays currently 15 [euro] cents for emitting one ton of CO2. In the EU, the price has reached €50.”

 said Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko. But Baher El-Hifnawi of the World Bank and Mark Magaletsky of the EBRD cautioned that their institutions would only contribute to a bailout package if it were part of a comprehensive package of changes to prevent a recurrence.

” Nefco, the Helsinki-based Nordic Environment Finance Corp. said in a statement released Wednesday at a solar and wind producers forum in Kyiv. “Fossil energy should be subject to a CO2 tax.” After funding 421 MW of wind and solar projects in Ukraine, Nefco said it has frozen future funding because “the green tariff agreements [are] not being fulfilled.”

,” Carl Sturen, company CEO, told Interfax-Ukraine after Wednesday’s press conference. If adopted, the excise tax would cost Vindkraft €3 million a year, he estimated. With the changing rules and mounting debts, he said he is “constantly” renegotiating loans with banks.

. In the first, $800 million phase, Danieli and Metinvest are to build a plant capable of producing 1.2 million tons of steel a year – cold-rolled, galvanized and color-coated. The Italian equipment “will allow Metinvest to achieve world-class product quality at all stages of production – from semi-finished products to coated rolled products,” Yuriy Ryzhenkov, director general of Metinvest, said at the signing ceremony.

Metinvest says: “The second stage of the project includes the construction of a new annealing furnace department, a skin pass mill and a roll slitting unit, as well as a new line for polymer coating on galvanized rolls.” The highly automated plant will create only 230 jobs.

Yuriy Ryzhenkov, the company CEO announced to Ukraine 24 TV yesterday. He said: “Literally next week we will sign a contract for the construction of a new cold rolling mill. This is already a billion dollar project at the Ilyich plant.”

. Separately, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the House Foreign Affairs Committee Monday that the Administration is talking to Germany about reimbursing Ukraine for lost transit fees and about establishing a pipeline cutoff mechanism if Russia moves against Ukraine. “I think it is necessary to ensure that the transit fee that Ukraine may at some point in the future lose as a result gas pipeline…was reimbursed,” Blinken said, according to Radio Free Europe.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters about next week’s meeting with Putin. In an interview with Axios posted on Sunday, Zelenskiy asked for a meeting with Biden, complaining about Biden’s decision last month to stop trying to block the Nord Stream 2 Russia-Germany Baltic gas line. “This is a weapon, a real weapon…in the hands of the Russian Federation,” Zelenskiy said. “It is not very understandable…that the bullets to this weapon can possibly be provided by such a

Referring to worries that this Ukraine bypass pipeline will free Russia to attack Ukraine, Blinken told the House Foreign Affairs Committee: “We have agreements in place, upfront, to come back on any activities by Russia that are challenging the security or economic security of any of those countries.” Russian officials say the $11 billion; 1,230 km pipeline is 95% complete and will be ready to carry gas this fall.

German government spokesperson Stefffen Seibert said to reporters on Monday. Referring to the Russia-Ukraine gas transit pact that expires at the end of 2024, he said: “We would like the option when it is extended.”

Chairman of the Bundestag’s Foreign Affairs Committee, tweeted: “#Putin blackmails #Ukraine before #NordStream2 has even been finished. He uses the pipeline as exactly the kind of weapon, the Poles, Balts and Ukrainians have always believed it to be.”

Avakov told reporters: “We expect that there will be provocations, attempted terrorist attacks on our section of the gas pipeline. And then they will say: ‘Look, you see, that is why we transport it through Nord Stream 2.’” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba arrives in Berlin today for two days of talks with German officials.

 President Putin told the annual St Petersburg Forum investment conference on Friday. According to TASS, he said: “There is a possibility to use Ukraine’s gas transport system in the future, even after our current contract expires. Everything is possible and we are ready for it and want it but goodwill from our Ukrainian partners is needed.”

. Referring to Ukraine’s pipeline system, he said: “We now pay them $1.5 billion a year for gas transit. They might have been paid three, four, even five billion but they have wrecked everything with their own hands.”

, Putin predicted in his plenary speech, reports Reuters. His Deputy Prime Minister, Alexander Novak said that less than 100 km of the 1,230 km Russia-Germany pipeline remains to be built. Putin said Gazprom would start filling the line with gas as soon as Germany grants approval. Gazprom shares rallied after the announcement, reaching 274 rubles ($3.76) per share, their highest level in 13 years. Combined, Nord Stream 1 and 2 will have the capacity to pump 110 bcm a

Two weeks ago, Biden waived sanctions against the company building the pipeline, saying the line is almost finished and relations with Germany take precedence. Former US President Donald Trump, in a speech Saturday in North Carolina, contrasted President Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL Canada-US pipeline with Biden waiving sanctions on Nord Stream 2. Trump said: “He decided to stop the construction of our pipeline, but approved the construction of the Russian one.”

, reports the Green Deal service of Interfax-Ukraine. “We want to become the world leader in hydrogen technology,” Peter Altmeier, Germany’s Minister of Economy and Energy, said Friday. German officials are speaking with their Ukrainian counterparts about producing industrial quantities of hydrogen in Ukraine. Conceivably, Ukraine could use its existing east-west pipeline network to ship hydrogen to the EU.

Bartosz Cichocki, Poland’s Ambassador to Ukraine tells Glavcom news site. Ukraine stopped buying gas from Gazprom in November 2015, and buys Russian gas through intermediaries. Noting that Poland will stop buying gas from Gazprom after next year, the Ambassador said: “We are ready to help your country also become independent of Gazprom. It seems to me this option has no alternatives, because, if Nord Stream 2 starts operating, Russia does not have enough gas to sell through a pipeline running

, reports Ukratransgaz. With Ukraine’s duty free warehouse regime gaining wider acceptance amongst EU companies, foreign-owned gas now accounts for 28% of the 15.5 bcm currently stored in Ukraine. Over the summer, when prices are low, the reservoir system is expected to fill to close to its 30 bcm total capacity.

, Serhiy Hlazuno, group CEO told reporters Friday. During this time, the group plans to drill 30 wells. At present, it has 29 operating wells. Last year, Smart Energy increased its natural gas production by almost 9% yoy to 400 million cubic meters.

, increasing the known size of its Sakarya gas field by one third, to 540 bcm. Turkey consumes about 50 bcm a year. Ukraine consumes about 30 bcm. This summer, Ukraine’s Naftogaz plans to start seismic surveys in an offshore Black Sea block, near Romania and the mouth of the Danube.

DTEK CEO Maxim Tymchenko tells Ekonomichna Pravda news site. Ukraine’s largest private electricity producer is positioning itself to meet the EU’s net zero carbon target for 2050. Over the last three years, DTEK has invested $1.5 billion to build 1 GW of wind and solar capacity in Ukraine. In contrast, many of DTEK’s coal-fired power stations are “physically exhausted” and will have to close in the 2020s, Tymchenko says. He adds: “If nobody buys them, then we will close them

, Tymchenko says. Due to the war, DTEK lost control of mines and power stations, which cut the company’s electricity production in half. “In 2012, we produced 51 billion KWh — in 2020, 26.3 billion,” he says. “In 2012, we extracted 38 million tons [of coal]. In 2020 we extracted 19 million.”

 that Ukraine seeks from the World Bank and the Clean Technology Fund. According to Wednesday’s decision by the Cabinet of Ministers, the money would go for buying and installing 197 lithium-ion energy storage systems near hydroelectric plants operated by Ukrhydroenergo. Ukraine’s power transmission system is ill-equipped to handle the fluctuating electricity flows from wind and solar power plants.

 against the Guaranteed Buyer, Finbalance reported on Monday. As of mid-May, Ukrenergo, parent company of Guaranteed Buyer, said it still owes $574 million in overdue 2020 payments to wind and solar producers. More bills went unpaid this year. PV Magazine reports that Lithuania’s Modus Group, the owner of three solar plants in Ukraine, is preparing to sue the government for €11.5 million in losses due to last summer’s 15% reduction in solar tariffs.

, President Zelenskiy told three visiting US Senators yesterday. “Nord Stream 2 will disconnect Ukraine from gas supplies, which means it will “disconnect” us from at least $ 3 billion a year,” Zelenskiy said. “We will have nothing to pay for the Ukrainian army.”

the Senators told reporters in Kyiv that they will continue to try to block the Russia-Germany gas line. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, said the pipeline licensing process and the September 26 elections in Germany provide opportunities for stopping commissioning of the €9.5 billion pipeline.

, Serhiy Makogon, head of the pipeline operating company, writes on Facebook. “The Ukrainian GTS is a very complex, powerful and unique infrastructure that requires significant funds for daily operation,” he writes. Without long-term transit contracts the system becomes economically unviable, he writes. The Russian contract expires in 2024. In the late 2020s, part of the system could be used to transport hydrogen to the EU.

during the first five months of this year, compared to January-May 2020. Ukrmetalurgprom, the producer association, reports: pig iron +9.1%; steel +8.3%; rolled products: +7.9%.

, reports the regional government. Noting “10 years of bureaucratic struggle” the report hailed the commissioning of the first 27 wind turbines of a planned number of 167. If completed, the EuroCape project would be the fifth largest onshore wind project in Europe.

, Veronika Melkozerova reports for NBC News from Toretsk,  in government-controlled Donetsk. As water fills the mines, methane is pushed to the surface triggering explosions, she reports. Of the 121 working mines in the Donbas, 88 are in the Russia-controlled sector, says Ukraine’s Energy Ministry. Over the next 20 years, Ukraine intends to close most of its coalmines, partly with German and Polish aid. Ukrainian experts say the separatists have stopped pumping water from a dozen mines, including Yunkom site

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Deputy Presidential Chief of staff, tells Interfax-Ukraine. Ukraine’s only working oil refinery, in Kremenchuk, cannot make up for this month’s shortfall in gasoline imports from Belarus, nor can it meet the government’s increased demand for bitumen for the ‘Big Construction’ road building project. Two months ago, on a visit to Qatar, President Zelenskiy reached preliminary agreements on the construction of new oil and gas terminals in Odesa.

 Serhii Kuyun, director of the A-95 consulting group, writes on Facebook. Ukraine will get 10,000 tons, instead of the normal 50,000. Ukrainian traders have bought all free gasoline from Lithuania’s Orlen Lietuva, the only refinery in the Baltics, and have contracted gasoline for sea delivery. Drivers can expect price rises at the pumps.

 writes UNIAN. Anna Bredikhina wrote that Russia’s Rosneft and Surgutneftegaz are refusing to supply oil to Naftan, Belarus’ second refinery because of US sanctions that hit Naftan on Thursday. Bredikina writes: “Accordingly, our northern neighbors decided to screw on the tap with fuel for Ukraine in order to meet, first of all, the needs of their country.”

, predicts GlobalData, a London-based data provider. During the last decade, electricity consumption fell by 9%, to 127.3 terawatts, GlobalData says. Looking ahead, Pavan Vyakaranam, a GlobalData executive, cited several factors for the big drop in the 2020s: “One of the most prominent is its declining population. A slowdown in the commercial and industrial sectors will continue to impact demand in future.”

. Targeting Nord Stream 2, she told the oil and gas company’s press department: “Ukraine still needs to win its battle against the Russian geopolitical pipeline. We are currently working on several scenarios to stop Nord Stream 2.” In the Rada, Zalishchuk ran the Subcommittee on Euro-Atlantic Cooperation and European Integration.

 has been chosen by the Cabinet of Ministers to represent the government on the Naftogaz Supervisory Board. She succeeds Robert Bensh, a Houston oil and gas executive. At the same Cabinet session, three foreign members were reelected for new, 1-year terms: Clare Spottiswoode (Britain), Bruno Lesqua (France) and Ludo Van der Heyden (Belgium), as well as two Ukrainian state representatives: Natalia Boyko and Yulia Kovaliv.

 enkorr, or energy correspondent news site, reports from Kyiv. Belarus supplies half of Ukraine’s needs for this premium unleaded gasoline. “Today we were advised that there would be no supplies of the A-95 at all,” one trader reportedly told enkorr Friday. Referring to a refinery in Mazyr, just north of Ukraine, another trader said: “According to our data, the Mozyr plant is flooded with gasoline.”

“The worst decision that Belarusians could have taken in the current situation is to close the supply of A-95 gasoline to Ukraine, where their product has 50% of the market,” he wrote, noting that Ukrainian drivers, truckers and farmers need 50,000 tons of this fuel monthly. The uncertain mood is captured in a UNIAN headline: “Fuel lesson from Belarus: should Ukrainian motorists to stock up on gasoline?”

, DTEK reports. Located in southwest Mykolaiv, the project is largely financed with money from a green Eurobond that DTEK issued in the fall of 2019. If the government catches up with overdue payments to wind and solar producers, DTEK could proceed with plans to increase the Tiligulska plant 4.5 times, to 564 MW, for a total of $640 million, Maris Kunickis, CEO of DTEK Renewables, said in March 2021.

Located about 150 km east of Lviv city, the Ternopil project is to be 25 MW. Vestas says it has 18% of the world wind turbine market. The 6 MW turbines it is making for the DTEK project are some of world’s largest onshore turbines. Their rotor diameter is 126 meters.

” headlines an Atlantic Council blog by Oleksiy Honcharuk, President Zelensky’s first Prime Minister. Alarmed over the government’s bypassing of the Naftogaz Supervisory Board to switch CEOs, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken cut his face-to-face meeting with Zelensky on May 5, from one hour to 15 minutes. “This strong signal was backed by equally firm rhetoric identifying domestic corruption alongside Russian aggression as the two key dangers facing today’s Ukraine,” Honcharuk wrote from Washington. “Ukraine’s actions following the Blinken

Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko told German Ambassador to Ukraine Anka Feldhusen, the ministry reported yesterday. This synchronization is to take place by the end of 2023. Created in 2008, ENTSO-E, or the European Network of Transmission System Operators, represents 42 electricity transmission system operators from 35 European countries.

, and integrate into the European one, to unite our power grids,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro  Kuleba said last night on 1+1 TV’s ‘Right to Power’ talk show.

“We remember our experience last winter,” Valeriy Tarasiuk, chairman of the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission of Ukraine yesterday told  a public meeting. After power stations ran short of coal, the government imported electricity, first from Belarus in January, then from Russia in February. The move to stop electricity imports started before Belarus forced down the Ryanair passenger jet on Sunday. President Zelensky seeks to make Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear power producer, profitable. Responsible for producing half of Ukraine’s electricity, Energoatom

saying Tuesday: “It’s almost completely finished.” Bloomberg reported the president saying: “To go ahead and impose sanctions now, I think, is counter-productive in terms of our Europe.”

 the company has reported. “To find new tools to counter the Nord Stream 2 project,” Vitrenko has hired Myron Wasylyk, former Ukraine director general of PBN Hill + Knowlton Strategies, as an international adviser. An American with Washington experience, Wasylyk has worked for the National Committee of the Republican Party, the State Department, and the US Department of the Environment. To deal with the Rada and government agencies, Vitrenko has Roman Suprun, who has experience in government relations projects.

, NV has reported. A former deputy foreign minister, Zerkal was appointed 18 months ago to succeed Vitrenko in pursuing legal suits against Russia. Late last month, Vitrenko returned to Naftogaz, signing a one-year contract as CEO of the state-owned oil and gas company.

during the first four months of this year, compared to January-April 2020. Ukraine slightly outpace world growth of 8.6% and put Ukraine in 10th place worldwide for iron production, according to the World Steel Association. By contrast, Ukraine’s iron production growth in 2020 was only 1.8% yoy.

, reports the Kyiv Post. Zhmak and Metinvest did not give their version. President Zelenskiy said Thursday that railroad freight rates will rise to international levels. The price for iron ore, a major Metinvest export, has doubled over the last year.

to check the safety of the Soviet-era locks and dams and the viability of Ukryhdroenergo’s multi-year, $120 million rehabilitation plan, reports the press service of the state hydroelectric company. Mott MacDonald counts as a corporate ancestor a water engineering consultancy that worked on Egypt’s Aswan Dam.

 and CEO of Naftogaz Trading Gas Supply Company, the state oil and gas company reports.  Naftogaz group chief operating officer Otto Waterlander will be acting head of the Trading division. Iryna Zhuravliova, head of the business operations, has been appointed acting CEO of Naftogaz Trading Gas Supply Co.

“The price is very high today,” he said at his press conference. “You can slightly increase budget revenues. I think it’s fair.” Moving from a tax of 11-12% of iron ore as it come out of the ground, the new tax scale would range from 0.1% to 16% on iron concentrate and pellets ready for export. Using as a marker China’s price for one ton with 62% iron content, the tax would be 16% for shipments selling at over $180

to 7 million tons in January-April, compared to the same period last year. Ukrmetalurgprom, the industry association, said that pig iron production was up by 9.1%, also to 7 million tons. Last year, half of Ukraine’s metal exports went to China, which invested a record $542 billion in infrastructure.

 Maksym Tymchenko, DTEK’s CEO, said of the 1 MW battery in Zaporizhia: “This is first step toward building a new reliable, flexible energy system in Ukraine. We open door to other actors who will invest more in energy storage systems.” Storage helps power distribution companies balance the peaks and lows of electricity generated from solar and wind plants.

, General Manager of Honeywell Process Solutions, the unit that helped build the storage system. Addressing the event by video link, he said: “You are the true trailblazers.” Bloomberg forecasts that by 2040, world storage capacity will hit 1 terawatt (1,000 gigawatts).

Maksym Nemchynov, a deputy energy minister, said. Referring to this legal black hole, he praised DTEK for going ahead, calling it “a brave and risky project.” He and Roman Abramovskiy, minister of Ecology and Natural Resources promised to help create the legal framework for more investments in industrial scale energy storage.

Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, Ukrenergo board chairman, told the battery storage event. The head of Ukraine’s state-owned electricity distribution company, promised: “Synchronization of the Ukrainian energy system with the European one in 2023 will take place. Period.” He said that if Ukraine has more ‘flexibility’ – including industrial energy storage systems – it will allow Ukraine to export more power to the EU.

 CNN and Axios have reported from Washington. Seeking to avoid serious damage to the Germany-US relationship, President Biden apparently has decided to sanction Russian ships and subcontractors, the reports say, citing Washington officials. With the 1,230 km long pipeline 95% complete, it seems that the Russia-Germany gas line will be finished this summer – sanctions or no sanctions.

. It will also deprive Ukraine of $1-2 billion in gas transit revenues and remove a brake on Russian behavior. Axios writes: “Bypassing Ukraine with a direct pipeline to Germany is an opportunity for Russia to advance its goal of isolating its former client state, now a fledgling democracy, from Western Europe.”

 Clare Spottiswoode, the British energy executive who chairs the Supervisory Board, said yesterday in a video address to the Cabinet of Ministers: “We will carefully consider any good ideas and changes in the implementation of our roadmap proposed to us by the Chairman of the Board [Yuriy Vitrenko].” The Supervisory Board had quit en masse, effective last Friday, in protest over the government’s ‘legal manipulation’ on April 28 to oust Andriy Kobolyev, Naftogaz CEO for seven years.

, according to a copy of the ‘Joint Roadmap’ obtained by the UBN. At yesterday’s Cabinet meeting Prime Minister Shmygal wrote on Telegram that the government would start an independent search process for a new CEO and Supervisory Board for Naftogaz. It is not known if the search will include Kobolev, a former Naftogaz executive director.

in an Atlantic Council Ukraine blog: “Amid all the rhetorical sturm und drang, it is important for everyone to understand that in appointing Yuri Vitrenko, Ukraine’s government has chosen a strong manager, a reformer with a record of integrity and independence, a negotiator of proven skill, and an executive with a track record of effectively countering Russia’s economic and energy wars against Ukraine.” Karatnycky, a senior fellow at the Council, titled the essay: “Naftogaz drama highlights Ukraine’s politics of personal

, reports Interfax-Ukraine. This year, the LSE-listed company is increasing production by 14%, to 12 million tons. A combination of strong Chinese demand and the Biden Administration’s planned infrastructure renewal plan have contributed to a doubling of world iron ore prices over the last year, to $208 a ton yesterday.

A US company, Autonomous Solutions Inc., installed remote controls on several large capacity Caterpillar trucks now in use at the Eristovsky open pit mine in Poltava region. A company video of one driverless monster truck can be seen here.

. “We are also affectionately called ‘Ukrainian steel giant’ because we are engaged in the extraction of raw materials, steel smelting and the sale of metal products all over the world,” wrote the publicists for Metinvest, 71% of which is owned by Rinat Akhmetov. “And we are the only company with Ukrainian roots that is included in the list of the world’s leading steel producers and iron ore miners.”

the company said last night after London markets closed. In an announcement posted on the London Stock Exchange, DTEK said parts of the current debt on DTEK Energy Eurobonds were converted into $425 million worth of DTEK Oil and Gas Eurobonds, at a rate of 6.75% per annum and maturity until Dec. 31, 2026. Other debt was converted into new DTEK Energo Eurobonds at a rate of 7%, maturing Dec. 31, 2027.

the press release reads. DTEK CEO Maksym Timchenko said: “Despite the loss of assets in Donbas, the systemic crisis in the Ukrainian electricity market and the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, DTEK Energy has successfully completed the process of restructuring its Eurobonds and its main bank debt in the amount of more than US$2 billion.”

The pilot project is funded by Britain, a country which has struggled with this challenge since the 1980s. Germany and Poland also are advising Ukraine on the transition. With the number of coal miners dropping, Ukraine’s transition largely has meant miners leaving mining regions for other jobs.

. Others will be privatized individually, said Yaroslav Demchenkov, the Deputy Energy Minister on Dom TV last week. “These are the ones that have promising coal beds, and enough coal that can be mined there for several more decades,” he said. “We will try to find an investor for them.”

 to be presented Wednesday at an online event sponsored in part by the German government. This Zoom conference, “Reaching Ukraine’s energy and climate targets,” will be in Ukrainian and English. Today is the last day to register.

, on the Dnister estuary in Odesa region. The 4MW GE turbines are the largest in operation in Ukraine today. Each of the 10 towers rises 131 meters high, about four stories short of Kyiv’s Parus Business Center. Elementum Energy and American developer Ukraine Power Resources are building a second, 60 MW phase of Dnistrovska, which is to be commissioned one year from now.

 “Despite the ongoing challenges in the renewable energy industry in Ukraine, we believe that these growing pains will be successfully managed.  Green energy is destined to play a growing role in the Ukrainian energy sector.”

 “Ukraine has an extraordinary land resource which is compatible with large scale renewable energy.  We look forward to building our next wind project.”

 says Artem Semenyshyn chairman of the Solar Energy Association of Ukraine, reports reform.energy. The problem of ‘over production’ by solar plants is to sharpen in the summer, typically the peak solar power production season.

 claiming €11.5 million in damages for last summer’s retroactive cutting of green tariffs. The company owns the Bolokhivsky solar parks in Zhytomyr.