From September 28, 2022, the Moldovan GTS operator confirms nominations for natural gas transportation in the form of a virtual reverse (backhaul) at the Grebenniki junction, the GTS Operator of Ukraine said on Friday.
“OGTSU has been working with partners for a long time to implement this opportunity. The long-awaited implementation of the virtual reverse by Moldova opens the way for the transportation of natural gas along the Trans-Balkan corridor in both directions,” said Andrey Prokofiev, head of the department for work with customers of OGTSU services.
The potential capacity of the Trans-Balkan corridor is up to 20 billion cubic meters. m per year. The route opens up the possibility for customers to import gas from LNG terminals in Turkey and Greece.
“The Trans-Balkan Corridor opens up opportunities not only for Ukraine. Benefits through access to new gas markets open up for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe with the ability to store the resource in underground gas storage facilities in Ukraine,” added Olga Belkova, Director for Cooperation with Government Agencies and Organizations.
The GTS operator of Ukraine hopes for a legislative settlement of the possibility of transportation in the form of a backhaul on a long-term basis.
As reported, from August 1, 2022, the OGTSU increased the volume of the possibility of measuring natural gas at the Grebeniki junction (between Ukraine and Moldova) by 1.5 times – from 3.96 to 6.12 million cubic meters. m per day, thereby ensuring that Ukraine fulfills all the prerequisites for launching the Trans-Balkan corridor.
An increase in natural gas measurement volumes in the future opens up more opportunities for both Ukrainian and European traders. Namely, customers of the EU countries will be able to import gas via the Trans-Balkan corridor from LNG terminals in Greece and Turkey through the territory of Ukraine to Hungary, Slovakia, Poland.
S&P Global Ratings lowered its foreign currency (FC) long-term sovereign credit and issue ratings on Ukraine to ‘CC’ from ‘CCC+’. The outlook on the long-term sovereign rating is negative.
Fitch Ratings has upgraded Ukraine’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency (LTFC) Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘CC’ from ‘RD’ (restricted default).
The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine expects a decline in GDP of at least 30-35% in 2022, and for the next year it has developed four macroeconomic scenarios, which, depending on the conditions, give from 0.4% further decline to 15.5% of economic growth, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko has reported.
The deficit of Ukraine’s trade in goods in July this year amounted to $1.798 billion, which is 4.1 times more than in July last year ($440 million). According to its data, exports of goods in July fell by 47.9% compared to last year, to $2.92 billion, while imports fell by 21.9%, to $4.718 billion. Geographically, in trade with the EU, even an increase in imports was recorded by 9.1%, to $2.651 billion, while exports decreased by 8.3%, to $2.158 billion.
The growth of consumer prices in Ukraine in July 2022 due to seasonal factors slowed down to 0.7% from 3.1% in June and 2.7% in May, returning to the level of the end of last year.
In July last year, inflation was 0.1%, so in annual terms, in July this year, it rose to 22.2% from 21.5% in June and 18% in May.
The loan portfolio of Ukrainian banks in July 2022 decreased by 6% to UAH 1.212 trillion, while the volume of non-performing loans (NPL) increased by 7.1% to UAH 363.682 billion, according to a report on the website of the National Bank of Ukraine ( NBU).
During January-May 2022, Ukraine’s leading retail companies paid about UAH 15 billion in taxes and provided jobs for almost 250,000 employees, the press service of the Retail Association of Ukraine (RAU) reported.
Economic Monitoring’s Project Manager – PhD in Economics, Maksim Urakin
The Central Mining and Processing Plant (TsGOK, Krivoy Rog, Dnipropetrovsk region), which is part of the Metinvest group, allocated more than UAH 4 million to sow 80 hectares of industrial areas with winter rye as part of the fight against dusting.
According to the company, CGOK continues to use green technologies to reduce the technogenic impact on the environment. The enterprise sowed 80 hectares of winter rye on dry tailing dumps, and Metinvest allocated more than UAH 4 million to the environmental project.
At the same time, it is noted that in order for the plants to sprout better, the environmentalists of the plant used mineral fertilizers of saltpeter and nitroammophos. To date, 80% of the crops have already sprouted. The plants will soon develop a strong root system and ground shoots that will hold back dust and reduce dusting by more than 230 tons per year.
“The Central GOK systematically introduces green technologies, which significantly reduce the impact of the enterprise on the environment. We have been sowing winter rye at the plant for more than five years. This is a good practice that has a good effect – the plants form a protective barrier and do not allow dust to spread on the beaches of the plant’s tailings “, – explains the head of the department of environmental protection of the Central GOK Natalya Belozerova, quoted by the press service.
At the same time, it is recalled that planting winter crops, planting greenery on the territory of the enterprise and nearby urban settlements is one of the priority areas of the environmental program of the Central GOK. In the last three years alone, the plant has planted more than 3,000 green spaces.
CGOK is one of the five largest producers of mining raw materials in Ukraine. It specializes in the extraction and production of iron ore raw materials – concentrate and pellets.
CGOK is part of the Metinvest group, the main shareholders of which are PJSC System Capital Management (SKM, Donetsk) (71.24%) and the Smart Holding group of companies (23.76%).
The managing company of the Metinvest group is Metinvest Holding LLC.
Since the beginning of the war, the Affordable Medicines reimbursement program has included about 80 pharmacy chains, said Natalia Husak, head of the National Health Service of Ukraine (NSZU).
“It has become very valuable for us that pharmacies have expressed a desire to enter the reimbursement program during the war. Since March, we have concluded agreements with another 80 pharmacy chains, which means that 461 new pharmacies and pharmacy points have been added, where patients can get affordable medicine and insulin,” she said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Gusak said that currently 1,361 pharmacies are participating in the program, which in total have a network of more than 12.5 thousand holiday places throughout the country.
Pharmacies contracted by the National Health Service of Ukraine continue to work under the Affordable Medicines reimbursement program even under conditions of temporary occupation.
“The Affordable Medicine program works both in the occupied territories and where hostilities continue. For example, since February 24, pharmacies in the Kharkiv region have paid off more than 160,000 prescriptions for “affordable medicines,” more than 45,000 people have received drugs. The region’s pharmacies continued to provide people with insulin-dependent diabetes with the reimbursement program – 6940 people received life-saving drugs,” she said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Husak, in the Donetsk region, 5,816 Ukrainians received drugs under the Affordable Medicines program, and 2,526 people received insulins.
At the same time, she noted that many pharmacies in the occupation cannot enter data into the electronic health system (EPS), therefore they also accept paper prescriptions.
The head of the NSZU emphasized that the ESZ and the dynamics of issuing and paying off prescriptions reflect the processes of migration – how people return home to the completely de-occupied Kyiv region, Chernihiv and Sumy.
“Starting from May, there was an increase in the number of issued and canceled prescriptions, and in June-July – a resumption of the pre-war period,” she said.
In Zhytomyr and Lvov, they plan to build new thermal power plants on biofuel in a short time to save and reduce the use of natural gas, the press service of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine reported.
Naftogaz has begun preparatory work for the construction of thermal power plants that will operate on biomass (wood cod) and solid secondary fuel (RDF) in Lvov and Zhytomyr. The total capacity of the facilities will be 90 MW of thermal energy and 11 MW of electricity. The planned period for putting objects into operation in Lviv is the 1st quarter of 2023, in Zhytomyr – the 4th quarter of 2023,” the text of the release published on the company’s website on Saturday says.
As noted, Naftogaz intends to build at least 9 thermal power plants and bio-boiler houses in 8 regions of Ukraine with a total capacity of 250 MW of thermal energy and 52 MW of electricity.
“The company has an ambitious goal of becoming the largest biomass heat generator by 2027 and replacing about 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Ukraine can almost completely abandon the use of natural gas for central heating, replacing it, in particular, with bioenergy,” the statement said. release.
It is reported that during his working trip on September 30 and October 1 to Lviv and Zhytomyr, the head of the board, Yuriy Vitrenko, noted that the NAC helps Ukrainian cities to transfer their CHPPs from gas to biofuel (we are talking about projects in Zhytomyr, Lvov, Akhtyrka) and is ready to support and other cities in this direction.
“We are interested in investing in such projects in order to import less gas at enormous prices. The implementation of such projects is also economically beneficial, and for the environment, such investments quickly pay off, while tax money goes to local budgets, and the number of jobs grows” , Vitrenko stressed.
According to him, a comprehensive approach is needed for a smooth passage of the heating season. In particular, sufficient gas reserves in storage (currently 13.9 billion cubic meters) and stabilization of its own production (gas – IF-U) are the most important tasks for Naftogaz, and the transition of heat generating enterprises to modern technologies and the use of biofuels, and the modernization of networks to reduce heat loss.
In turn, the mayors of Lviv and Zhytomyr Sergey Sukhomlin and Andrey Sadovy noted the successful implementation of this project, which will be able to provide the production of 50 MW of energy generated from alternative fuels and reduce the dependence of cities on natural gas, Naftogaz stressed.
Thus, in Zhytomyr in 2023 they plan to use 10% of the consumed gas, in particular, in 2015, 93 million cubic meters of gas, and in 2022 there should be about 45 million cubic meters. The authorities plan to implement three projects in the city to save gas and turn household waste into heat and electricity.
And in Lvov Novoyavorivsk plans to build a modern thermal power plant in a short time. Sadovyi noted that it will cover about a quarter of the city’s heat needs. The project also includes the construction of a sorting complex for municipal solid waste.
“Cod trees and the organic component of MSW will be used as fuel for the thermal power plant – this is paper, cardboard, food waste, wood, leather, fabric. By implementing this project, we will be able to save $ 24 million that we spent on gas. And the residents of Novoyavorivsk will receive cheaper heat and hot water throughout the year,” the NAC said.
According to the project, the required volume of MSW collection is 70,000 tons per year, which includes 30-35% secondary resources, as well as biodegradable and combustible (65%), namely about 45,000 tons per year. Another fuel component is planned to use wood chips with a volume of 39,000 tons per year.
