Energy

Friday, June 18

Prime Minister Shmyhal filed a lawsuit Wednesday 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. Sh...

With doubts clouding future deliveries of Russian gas across Ukraine, Azerbaijan could become a source of imported gas for Ukraine , 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 ...

Ukraine is working with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to become the fulcrum of a Europe-Central Asia transit route , 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...

Thursday, June 17

With ‘large scale privatizations’ only unblocked last month, the sales schedule for this year is as follows: 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...

Next year, Centrenergo, the conglomerate of 23 regional power producers, will go on sale in March 2022. Odesa Port Plant, the chemical producer, is to go on sale in April 2022.

The Naftogaz Supervisory Board may meet as early as Monday to discuss the move by its chair, Clare Spottiswoode, to remove Yuriy Vitrenko as CEO, 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 dismiss...

Dutch company Bontrup plans to invest €50 million in ‘green’ energy project in the Chornobyl exclusion zone , 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-base...

Wednesday, June 16

Legal warfare broke out yesterday over Yuriy Vitrenko, the new head of Naftogaz, Ukraine’s largest oil and gas company and the nation’s largest taxpayer. 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 compa...

Vitrenko accused the anti-corruption body of “selective justice,” 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 vo...

Justice Minister Denys Malyuska promised yesterday to challenge the decision in court . 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 p...

Tuesday, June 15

Ukraine is preparing to take legal action against Gazprom to unblock natural gas supplies from Central Asia, 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...

If Russia continues to block transit gas, 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 Gazp...

In Geneva tomorrow, President Biden is to meet with President Putin and speak about Nord Stream 2 , 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...

To upgrade gas links with Poland, work is underway on modernizing the final stretch of an 80 km pipeline from the Polish border to the Komarno compressor station in Lviv region , 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 fo...

Monday, June 14

Russia is holding back on gas supplies to Europe this summer to create higher prices in winter , 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 n...

Ukraine’s east-west gas pipeline system is operating at less than 20% of its design capacity , 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 ...

Friday, June 11

Yuriy Vitrenko, the new CEO of Naftogaz, says he welcomes foreign investors into Ukraine’s oil and gas sector. 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, Vitr...

Starting today, gas will be injected into a completed section of the Russia-Germany Nord Stream 2 Baltic pipeline , 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 b...

Westinghouse fuel will power eight of Ukraine’s 15 nuclear power reactors by 2024, 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 swit...

All of Ukraine’s reactors are of Soviet design and 12 were built during the Soviet era, in the 1980s. 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...

The EU’s ‘Carbon Border Tax,’ due to be adopted next month, threatens Ukraine’s industrial and energy status quo, 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 Lundi...

Ukraine has set ambitious CO2 reduction targets, but “the bulk of the work will fall on the period after 2030, ” 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.”

The government is working on a green bond to help repay the nearly $1 billion in Ukrenergo’s overdue debt to solar and wind producers, 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 ...

A Rada bill to impose a 3.2% excise tax on renewable energy producers “is a step in the wrong direction, ” 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 f...

Vindkraft Ukraina is suspending plans to build a 200 MW wind farm in Kherson region this year, because “nobody is funding…everything is in limbo ,” 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 moun...

Italy’s Danieli, a world leader in the production of steel plants, signed a deal yesterday to be the main equipment supplier for Metinvest’s new $1 billion cold rolling shop in Mariupol . 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 equip...

A second stage will increase capacity by one third, to 1.6 million tons. 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 o...

Wednesday, June 9

Metinvest plans to build a $1 billion modern cold rolling mill at its Ilyich Metallurgical Plant in Mariupol, 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 ...

Naftogaz CEO Yuriy Vitrenko met yesterday in Washington with key US Congress members to argue for sanctions to block the opening of the Russia-Germany Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline . 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 abo...

Tuesday, June 8

Biden will “stand up firmly for Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and aspirations,” 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...

The Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has told a US Congressional committee Monday that Nord Stream 2 is a “fait accompli.” 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 ...

“For the German government it remains central that Ukraine should remain a transit country even after Nord Stream 2,” 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 i...

In contrast, Norbert Röttgen, 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, B...

Ukraine’s Internal Affairs Minister Arsen Avakov predicted Saturday that after the launch of Nord Stream 2 Russia could sabotage the pipeline to justify stopping gas transit across Ukraine. 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 t...

Monday, June 7

Ukraine must show “goodwill” if Russia is to continue shipping its gas across Ukraine after the expiration of the Gazprom contract at the end of 2024, 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...

EU imports of Russian gas will increase by 25% — 50 billion cubic meters a year — in late 2020s, Putin said, offering a forecast not shared by many analysts . 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 ...

Construction of Nord Stream 2 will be complete by early August , 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 ...

The pipeline is to be discussed at the June 16 Putin-Biden summit in Geneva. 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 s...

Germany will invest €8 billion in 62 major hydrogen projects , 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 officia...

Ukraine should start working with Poland to integrate gas pipelines and free itself of its dependency on Russian gas, 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...

Foreign gas traders are keeping 4.4 bcm in Ukraine’s underground gas storage facilities – double the amount of this time last year , 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. Ove...

Smart Energy plans to invest $400 million in gas production over the next decade , 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 product...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced Friday the discovery of 135 bcm of natural gas at its Amasra-1 offshore well , 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 seismi...

Friday, June 4

DTEK is ready to “consider the sale of power stations and coal mines” as the company shifts towards green energy, 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 ...

Last month’s restructuring of much of DTEK’s bank and bond debt can be traced back to debt taken on in 2012, before the Donbas war , 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 bill...

Electricity storage for balancing power supplies will be the goal of a $211 million loan 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...

Eight renewable energy producers have won a total of $29 million in judgements in Kyiv’s Economic Court 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 pr...

Thursday, June 3

Only the US can stop Nord Stream 2 , 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 y...

With a high-level German delegation meeting Biden Administration officials in Washington this week, 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 ...

It costs $1 billion a year to operate Ukraine’s east-west gas transmission system , 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 operati...