Energy

Friday, November 26

Electricity production increased by 6.6% this year, announced the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy. In January-October 2021, electricity production in Ukraine amounted to 127.722 bln kWh, which is 6.6% more than in the same period of 2020. In January-October 2021, nuclear power plants increased electricity production by 9.8% to 69.183 bln kWh, and hydroelectric power plants by 43.8% to 8.972 billion kWh. On the other hand, electricity production at thermal power plants increased by 2.2% to 30.196 billion kWh, and at thermal power plants and cogeneration units –

Ukraine will lose $1.2 bln in gas transit revenues from the launch of NordStream-2. The estimate was made by the IMF to 2026, as long as the current transit contract with Gazprom is in force. Over the past five years, Ukraine has received an average of just over $ 2.5 bln a year in revenue for providing its gas pipelines to Gazprom. Transit fees are expected to be about 40% lower in 2021 than in previous years, reported Interfax.

Wednesday, November 24

US to impose new sanctions on Nord Stream 2. The announcement was made in a statement by the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken. The State Department had submitted a report to the US Congress listing two ships and the Russian-related company Transadria Ltd which are involved in the project. The report is submitted under the European Energy Security Protection Act 2019 (PEESA). “Transadria Ltd. will be subject to sanctions under PEESA, and its vessel Marlin will be identified as blocked property,” said Blinken. He stressed that in total, the

Gas prices rose by 9% due to sanctions against Nord Stream 2. Prices for December 2021 gas contracts rose to $1,089 per thousand cubic meters after new US sanctions against Russia’s Nord Stream 2. On November 23, quotations increased by 8.7% to € 91.9 per MWh or $1089 per thousand cubic meters.

DTEK Energy has reduced its net losses 10-fold since January 2021 . It earned UAH 1.965 bln ($74 mln) in net losses in the third quarter of this year, which is almost 10 times less than the loss in the same period last year, UAH 19.12 bln ($721 mln). At the same time, in the first 9 months of 2021, the company earned UAH 35.94 bln ($1.36 bln) in revenue. 13.7% more than UAH 31.614 bln ($1.19 bln). For the 3rd quarter of 2021, the gross profit amounted to UAH 4.91

The state Guaranteed Buyer has requested a debt settlement of UAH 4 bln ($150 mln) from Energoatom. The Acting Director, Vadym Ulyda reached out to the Director of Energoatom, Petro Kotin, to hold talks and settle disputes. The Guaranteed Buyer says it has taken all necessary measures to repay most of its 2020 debt. At the same time, Energoatom initiated lawsuits to recover funds from the Guaranteed Buyer. On November 22, the Northern Economic Court of Appeal ruled in favor of Energoatom. The subject of the lawsuit is to recover more than UAH

The production of hydraulic units for the Dniester Hydro Accumulation Station will cost UAH 8 bln ($300 mln) over a 6-year period. According to the Director of Ukrainian Power Machines (Kharkiv), Victor Subotin, the contract is for 3 turbines and 3 generators. The production of the fifth, sixth and seventh units of the station will create new jobs at the enterprise.

Turboatom and Elektrovazhmash will work as a single company from December 2021. The two Kharkiv industrial giants, Ukrainian Power Machines (formerly “Turboatom”) and Elektrovazhmash, will merge and work as a single enterprise, reported ukrinform.

Tuesday, November 23

Oil prices retreat in the face of supply and demand pressures , reports Reuters. Prices fell on Monday as rising COVID-19 cases in Europe, and a potential release of Japanese oil reserves raised concerns about both oversupply and weak demand. Brent crude was down 56 cents, or 0.7%, at $78.33 a barrel, and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 54 cents, or 0.7%, to $75.40. The combined SPR release could be 100 mln to 120 mln barrels or even higher, including 45 mln to 60 mln barrels from the

Ukrenergo lost an appeal by Akhmetov’s company for UAH 400 mln. The Northern Commercial Court of Appeal refused to meet Ukrenergo’s request and upheld the decision of the first instance to recover UAH 399.4 mln ($1.5 mln) in debts from Ukrenergo in favor of Rinat Akhmetov’s DTEK Dniproenergo. According to Finabalance, the debt was formed due to improper fulfillment of obligations by the state company under the agreement on participation in the balancing market.

The United States will help Ukraine build 14 new power units at nuclear power plants. Energoatom and the US industrial giant, Westinghouse, will sign bilateral agreements on implementing a project to build new power units at the Khmelnytskyi NPP using AP1000 technology announced Energoatom. Negotiations between Energoatom and the American side have been going on in recent months. Based on their results, drafts of the first bilateral agreements on implementing the project to construct two new power units were prepared.

Monday, November 22

The Poland-Ukraine pipeline project is on the EU’s list of priorities. The oil pipeline project between Poland and Ukraine has been included in the proposals of the European Commission on priority energy projects of infrastructure interconnection for 2021-2027. The Adamovo-Brody pipeline will connect Ukrtransnafta in Brody (Ukraine) to the Adamovo Reservoir Park (Poland).

The first shipment of imported coal arrived in Ukraine. This was the first out of seven vessels contracted by DTEK to bring more than 60,000 tons of coal to Ukraine. The Panamax class ship arrived at the Pivdenny port and is intended for the needs of Centerenergo state thermal power plants. The volume of each batch is from 40 to 75 thousand tons. As a result, the total supply should be 470 thousand tons.

Belarus has resumed electricity supplies to Ukraine. The supply of electricity to Ukraine from Belarus resumed on November 21, said an announcement from the Belarusian Energy Ministry. The export is carried out under the contract signed for the month of November. Previously, power unit No. 1 of the BelNPP was disconnected from the network due to the activation of the automatic protection system. However, on November 19 at 14:04, it was connected to the network.

Friday, November 19

European Commission ready to consult with Ukraine on Nord Stream-2 certification. Ukraine is in the process of preparing its opinion on the draft decision of the German Federal Network Agency Bundesnetzagentur on the certification of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline. It was stated by European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson at a meeting with Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko, and reported in the press service of the Ministry of Energy. Thus, Ukraine will become an active participant in the certification process politically and legally, the Ministry stressed.

The Polish infrastructure firm, Gaz-System, has completed the construction of the offshore part of the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline. “This is the completion of the most important stage of work in the Baltic Pipe project”, said the company in a press release. Baltic Pipe is a strategic project to create a new route for the supply of natural gas from Norway to the markets of Denmark and Poland and end-users in neighboring countries, including Ukraine. The pipeline will be able to supply 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually to Poland and 3 billion cubic meters from Poland

Thursday, November 18

The sale of petroleum from US reserves to drive down the price of oil. The price of Brent crude fell on Wednesday, November 17, after it was announced that US President, Joe Biden, is considering the sale of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to reduce gasoline prices. This week the price of gas reached record levels at California gas stations. In virtual talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Biden also called on Xi to sell oil from the country’s reserves.

Gazprom does not currently plan to increase gas supplies to the European Union. According to the results of capacity allocation auctions, Russia’s Gazprom does not intend to increase gas supplies to the EU until at least the second quarter of 2022, the General Director of the GTS Ukraine, Serhiy Makogon, announced on its Facebook page.

Manipulation of European funds by Ukrainian officials will be the basis for DTEK Renewables lawsuits in the international courts. The Ukrainian Guaranteed Buyer has acknowledged manual intervention in distributing the European targeted loan to repay debts to green investors, including DTEK Renewables. One result of the Illegal actions by several officials led to a fall in the valuation of the DTEK Renewables Eurobonds. As a result, Eurobonds and Ukraine’s sovereign credit indicators also fell. DTEK Renewables now requires the Guaranteed Buyer, Oschadbank, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, and the President’s Office to ensure the fastest payment of debts

Wednesday, November 17

Germany’s energy regulator has suspended the certification of Nord Stream 2. The approval process for the pipeline which will bring gas into Europe has been thrown a new roadblock to the contentious project, and drove up regional gas prices, reported Reuters. The reason that the Swiss-based consortium behind Nord Stream 2 first needed to form a German subsidiary company under German law to secure an operating license. It was unclear how long the process of establishing a new company and reapplying for certification would take. European natural gas prices immediately increased

Oil prices are rising due to low inventories and increased demand. On Tuesday the price of oil rose amid the prospect of limited stocks around the world. Brent oil prices rose by 52 cents (0.6%) to $82.57 per barrel. WTI oil added 42 cents (0.5%) to $81.30 a barrel, reported Reuters.

Seven ships with coal will soon arrive at Ukrainian ports. The announcement was made by the President, Volodymyr Zelensky, in a video message. He confirmed that the state is “successfully overcoming the challenge of coal shortages. In addition to our Ukrainian coal, there will be seven Panamax ships already heading to Ukrainian ports”, said Zelensky. According to the President, the additional coal supply will cover the needs of the energy sector by the end of the year. The first two ships will arrive in Ukraine in November, four in December,

Tuesday, November 16

The starting price of natural gas fell by 7% last week. As of November 12, the weighted average price of the November resource in the GTS of Ukraine was UAH 35,770.55 ($ 1,365) per thousand cubic meters, and the resource in December, UAH 28,722.00 ($ 1,092) per thousand cubic meters.

The “Guaranteed Buyer” paid UAH 16.3 bln ($62 mln) for electricity from renewable sources. The state-owned enterprise has recommenced payment for “green” kilowatt-hours purchased in the past and current years. “Thanks to the joint efforts of the state and the Guaranteed Buyer, they are fulfilling their obligations and continuing the calculations,” said the newly appointed Director, Vadim Ulida.

According to the Ministry of Energy, coal reserves in the warehouses of Ukraine fell below 400,000 tons. Over the last week, coal stocks decreased by 21.1% or by 101.3 thousand tons. On November 8, stocks in warehouses amounted to 479,300 tons, then by November 15, they fell to 378,000 tons (Interfax).

The Ministry of Economy has reduced the marginal price on gasoline and diesel fuel. As a result, the average cost of gasoline was UAH 28.18 per liter and diesel fuel UAH 24.55 per liter. The maximum selling price of fuel at gas station networks for mid-November will be calculated accordingly. It is noted that the average cost was determined based on calculations of Naftogaz Ukraine.

Monday, November 15

Payment orders for paying back the debts to RES producers are under threat. On November 13th, the Director of Guaranteed Buyer, Kostiantyn Petrykovets, was fired from his position because “signing the payments orders for paying back the debts to RES producers”. Bonds valued at $825 mln at a 6.875% yield to cover debts to RES producers were successfully sold this month. The funds were receipted to Ukrenergo’s accounts on Tuesday November 9th. The next planned step was that the Guaranteed Buyer would transfer funds to RES producers (about 1,200 companies are awaiting payments).

The volume of transit of oil products through Ukraine has decreased. In January-October 2021, the volume of transit of petroleum products decreased by 44% to 37,800 tons compared to the same period in 2020. The transit of diesel fuel for ten months decreased by 51% – to 28.2 thousand tons, of which 17.8 thousand tons – from Belarus to Moldova, 8.7 thousand tons – from Lithuania to Moldova, and 1.5 thousand tons – from Russia to Poland. On the other hand, gasoline transportation to Moldova increased by 48% to 8.4 thousand

UAH 1.9 bln to be invested in Ukraine’s oil and gas industry, announced the Prime Minister, Denys Shmygal, on Facebook. According to preliminary estimates, UAH 1.9 bln ($72.2 mln) will be invested in the oil and gas industry under two agreements that were signed for the distribution of products in the Grunivska and Okhtyrska hydrocarbon fields.

Coal production in Ukraine this year amounted to more than 24 mln tons, which is 6% higher than the planned production, announced the Ministry of Energy. In particular, 4.75 mln tons of coal were mined at enterprises under the Ministry of Energy.

Friday, November 12

Ukraine has again requested emergency electricity supplies. On November 11, Ukraine again requested emergency electricity assistance from Slovakia due to the accident at DTEK. Emergency assistance with a capacity of 100 MW was activated from 16:00 to ensure operational safety and avoid disconnection of consumers of the island of Burshtyn TPP.

Thursday, November 11

The price of natural gas has fallen to $800 due to an increase in transit of the resource from Russia. Despite the ongoing deficit in Europe, Gazprom has not reserved any additional capacity and is using that which is already booked. This has resulted in Russian gas supplies to Europe remaining much lower than what is typical for this period. At the same time, the growth is taking place against the background of a sharp decline and depletion of storage facilities. Prices for December contracts range from €65-66 per MWh, which is approximately $800 per thousand cubic meters. During the

The Ukrainian President signed a law on the development of biomethane production. The legislation was passed by the Verkhovna Rada after its second reading on October 21. The law lays the foundation for the production and development of biomethane in Ukraine and its export to EU countries.

Wednesday, November 10

Electricity deficiency in Ukraine can be prevented, said DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko at a press conference held on November 9. There are four ways to overcome the deficit of 5.5 billion kWh of electricity: It is necessary to import 1 mln tons of coal at Centerenergo, which will make it possible to generate 2 bln kWh; the price of this electricity, based on the current quotations of $150 per ton of coal in Amsterdam, is ₴4 for 1 kWh The second way is the operation of a TPP on a mix of coal and gas, at which the price of

Gas Transit Through Ukraine to Slovakia to increase by 15%. The requests for pumping natural gas have grown to almost 83 mln cubic meters. The actual pumping on Monday at the station amounted to 72.1 mln cubic meters, according to the data of the Slovak gas transmission operator Eustream.

Belarus continues supplying electricity to Ukraine under the contract signed in November, Belenergo has reported. “A letter from Belenergo on changing the terms of cooperation was sent to specific companies that are not scheduled to supply the electricity in November 2021”, the company announced. As reported on November 8, Belarus claimed that it’s not going to supply electricity to Ukraine based on the previously signed framework contracts.

The Ministry of Energy has signed two production-sharing agreements with a Dutch company, ER UKRAINE B.V. The two production sharing agreements include the distribution of products in two regions: Grunivska and Okhtyrska. The minimum investment under these two agreements will be ₴1.5 bln ($57 mln), and the term of implementation of the agreements is 50 years.

Ukraine will receive from the EIB €1 mln to implement energy-saving measures in hospitals, reported gov.ua. The EIB and the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development have signed a grant agreement to implement further the Energy Efficiency of Public Buildings in Ukraine project. “The grant is aimed at health care, which is especially true during the fight against the pandemic. Now it is more important than ever to build an infrastructure to support doctors and patients, “said Minister of Community and Territorial Development, Oleksiy Chernyshov.

Tuesday, November 9

Imports of electricity from Belarus on November 8 may increase to 400 MWh, according to recent data on the ENTSO-E website. Ukraine can receive 9,200 MWh of Belarusian electricity per day, which corresponds to approximately 2% of daily consumption. According to NEC Ukrenergo, the average daily consumption for the period from October 25 to October 31 was 432.3 thousand MWh.

Starting gas prices on Ukraine Energy Exchange (UEE) last week fell by 4%. During the period November 1st to the 5th, the price on the UEE decreased by 4%. “Starting resource prices had a trend that corresponded to the European one. As a result, as of Friday, the average starting price of the resource in November was 4% lower than on Monday”, the UEE announced.

DTEK joins PPCA international alliance for gradual transition to carbon-free energy. The international Powering Past Coal Alliance will assist DTEK in the gradual transition to carbon-free energy. The company plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040.

Britain is interested in cooperation with Ukraine on alternative energy resources. This includes the expansion of bilateral cooperation with Ukraine toward the safe handling of nuclear materials and producing alternative energy sources, said the British Ambassador to Ukraine, Melinda Simmons. Ms Simmons was speaking during her official visit to the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, (ChNPP press service).

The level of indebtedness of state mines to workers has reached ₴1.85 bln ($70.34 mln), announced the head of the Independent Trade Union of Miners of Ukraine, Mykhailo Volynets, on Facebook. “Energy officials have no answer when it’s possible to close the ₴1.85 bln salary debt to miners, and how to ensure payment of almost ₴1.4 bln of promising debt for November and December this year and how to guarantee the sustainable, safe operation of state mines during 2022,” wrote the trade union leader.

Ukrainian steel firms ask Zelensky to seek to cancel US’s 25% duty. Ukrmetalurgprom, the association of steel enterprises has asked President Volodymyr Zelensky to raise during meetings with government officials in the US about the issue of replacing a 25% duty on metal products supplied to this country with duty-free quotas.

Monday, November 8

The German Greens party’s opposition to the launch of Nord Stream-2. The co-chair of the German Green Party, Robert Habeck, spoke out against the rush to certify Nord Stream 2, saying “It was only possible if it complied with all European rules, not because of Kremlin blackmail”.

Centrenergo is ready to invest ₴450 mln in four coal faces. Centrenergo is ready to finance the commissioning of four coal longwalls to the value of ₴450 mln ($17.1 mln), said First Deputy Chairman of the State Property Fund, Denis Kudin. “We are ready to lend a hand to the state mines and finance them in advance. In fact, we are ready to make a large advance payment for coal in future periods, so that the state mines could mount their faces”, Kudin said in an interview with Energoreform.

Ukraine reduced gas imports by 77% in October reported GTSOU. In comparison to September 2021, gas imports to Ukraine in October decreased by 77% or 510 mln cubic meters. After the physical gas transit to Hungary was halted, imports from this country to Ukraine decreased 16 times. In October, 37 mln cubic meters of gas was imported from Hungary. The largest amount of gas imports came from Slovakia, whose share of total imports amounted to almost 75% (115.9 mln cubic meters). Imports from Poland dropped to 1.8 million

Ukrgasbank signs agreements with UAE’s Mashreq Bank for a loan valued at $35 mln. Both banks concluded the first agreement on structured trade financing, according to a recent press statement. The amount of transaction totals about $35 mln, for a term of up to 60 days which will assist Ukraine in the import petroleum products for further processing and exports of already finished products.

Friday, November 5

The Russian Federation has stopped the transit of thermal coal from Kazakhstan to Ukraine. The block imposed by the Russian Railways which did not permit the passage of cars carrying thermal coal through the Russian Federation. The relevant restriction is imposed only on thermal coal, and does not apply to the supply of coking coal, said the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy, Andriy Gerus, on telegram.

JKX Oil & Gas plc announced that it plans to delist and buy shares on London Stock Exchange. On November 4, the parent company of JV Poltava Gas and Oil Company sent a delisting offer to shareholders and approval of a repurchase agreement under a tender offer for about 23.3% of shares at a price of £0.42 per share, which corresponds to the average monthly share price on the Premium Listing of the London Stock Exchange. JKX will continue implementing strategic business development steps in the form of a private British company, says the press release of the