PJSC “Ukrnafta” in November-December 2022 has resumed sales of natural gas at the exchange auctions.
“In November-December, the company sold 17.1 million cubic meters of blue fuel on the platform of the Ukrainian Energy Exchange,” the company said in a press release on Thursday.
Besides, “Ukrnafta” also intensified its work at the market of natural gas supplies to the final consumer, the PJSC noted.
As Ukrnafta director Sergii Koretsii (who took over from Oleg Gez on November 10, 2022) said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine in late December 2022, the company plans to sell its own gas reserves in the underground storage facilities in the total volume of over 500 mln cubic meters at the exchange and/or through direct contracts.
According to him, Ukrnafta also plans to actively enter the market of natural gas supplies to end consumers.
“Just for the sake of understanding, the company used to have only five customers under direct contracts. Now we plan to become a reliable long-term partner both for large industrial enterprises and for businesses that need small volumes,” said Ukrnafta’s director.
As reported, Ukrnafta in 2021 reduced oil and condensate production by 0.1% compared to 2020 – to 1.499 million tons, gas – by 0.9% – to 1.117 billion cubic meters, but increased the production of liquefied gas by 1% (1.2 thousand tons) – to 117.7 thousand tons.
On November 5, 2022, the Supreme Commander in Chief decided to confiscate Ukrnafta shares (except for the controlling interest in Naftohaz Ukrainy) as state property during the martial law. Before the seizure, the structures of Ihor Kolomoyskyy and Hennadiy Boholyubov owned about 42% of Ukrnafta shares.
“Ukrnafta owns 85 special permits for production of hydrocarbons. On its balance sheet there are 1809 oil and 153 gas wells. The company owns 537 gas stations, of which 449 were in operation at the end of December 2022. The rest were either damaged as a result of military operations or are located in the temporarily occupied territories.
More than 244,000 people applied for asylum in Germany last year, with citizens of Syria topping the list, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
The agency notes that according to German statistics, citizens of Afghanistan, Turkey and Iraq followed the Syrians in the list.
In addition, more than a million citizens of Ukraine arrived in the country, but they do not have to apply for asylum, because they immediately receive a temporary residence permit.
Berlin notes that in 2022 the number of refugees increased by 27.9% compared to 2021, especially in the last three months of 2022.
German Interior Minister Nancy Feser said the government is trying to integrate refugees as quickly as possible in the life of the new place, for this purpose, German language lessons are held, and many other measures are taken. At the same time, she noted that German authorities are trying to do everything possible to deport from the country as soon as possible those who have been denied asylum.
The dollar is getting cheaper against the euro, the yen and the pound sterling in trading on Thursday before the release of inflation data for December in the United States.
The ICE-calculated index showing the dollar’s dynamics against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound sterling and Swedish krona) lost 0.15% in trading, while the broader WSJ Dollar Index lost 0.22%.
The euro/dollar pair is trading at $1.0775, compared to $1.0757 at the close of the previous session, as of 7:40 a.m. Ksk.
The U.S. currency pair with the yen dropped to 131.47 yen, compared to 132.49 yen in previous trading.
The exchange rate of the pound to the dollar rose to $1.2167 against $1.2149 the day before.
Thursday traders’ attention was fixed on the report of the U.S. Department of Labor on the last month’s dynamics of consumer prices in the country. The consensus forecast from experts polled by Trading Economics suggests that inflation in the U.S. slowed to 6.5% in December from 7.1% in November. The data will be released at 4:30 p.m. Moscow time.
Signals of weakening consumer price growth in the U.S. speak in favor of a further slowdown in the Federal Reserve’s (Fed’s) tightening of monetary policy.
Meanwhile, U.S. central bankers aren’t in a hurry to abandon their hawkish stance: earlier this week, Mary Daley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) of San Francisco, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that she thinks the Fed will have to raise the rate above 5% to achieve its inflation target.
Her colleague at the Atlanta Fed, Rafael Bostic, also confirmed his earlier opinion that the rate would be raised above 5%. Currently, its range is 4.25-4.5%.
The dollar/yuan pair exchange rate fell to 6.7565 yuan on Thursday against 6.7705 yuan at the close of the previous session.
China’s inflation accelerated to 1.8% year on year in December from 1.6% in November following a rise in food prices.
EURO, pound, U.S. dollar, yen
Nigeria intends to implement new logistics projects to increase and make more predictable the exports of agricultural products from Ukraine, a similar intention announced earlier by Senegal.
The Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mykola Solskyi has reached the relevant agreements during the meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Jeffrey Onyeama and the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Mohammad Mahmoud Abubakar, the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy reported on Wednesday evening.
It is specified that the meeting took place within the framework of the visit of the delegation of the Ukrainian Ministry to the countries of Africa.
The parties discussed opportunities for cooperation and expansion of trade relations between the countries, in particular the creation of a logistics hub for permanent supplies of agricultural raw materials and food products.
As reported, on January 9, Solskyy signed a memorandum of understanding in Senegal, which provides for the development of bilateral trade in agricultural products, cooperation in scientific research, investment, relations between public institutions and private organizations of Ukraine and Senegal.
It also refers to the possibility of storage of Ukrainian grain in the so-called grain hubs. At the same time, the head of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy said at the meeting that Ukraine is ready to export to African countries not only agricultural products, but also other goods, but it is necessary to focus on the development of logistics.
Ratio of the number of ukrainian migrants to the population of the recipient countries as of 03.10.2022, %
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
Oil prices are stable in trading on Thursday after a strong growth in the previous session, despite an unexpected increase in inventories in the USA.
The market is supported by the growing optimism of traders about the prospects for fuel demand in China. As noted by Bloomberg, Chinese companies are actively buying oil before the long holiday on the occasion of the Lunar New Year, which this time comes at the end of January.
“Investors are more focused on the global demand picture than energy stock data,” notes Tortoise portfolio manager Brian Kessens. – The focus is on China, which is likely to be the main driver of oil consumption growth in the first quarter.”
The cost of March futures on Brent on London stock exchange ICE Futures is $82,7 per barrel by 7:10 a.m. KSC on Thursday which is by $0,03 (0,04%) higher than the price on previous session closing. At the close of trading on Wednesday those contracts rose by $2.57 (3.2%) to $82.67 a barrel.
The price of WTI futures for February increased by $0.02 (0.03%) up to $77.43 per barrel at electronic trades of NYMEX. By the close of previous trading the cost of those contracts rose by $2.29 (3.1%) to $77.41 a barrel.
U.S. commercial oil inventories rose 18.96 million barrels to 439.61 million barrels last week, the Energy Department said Wednesday. Experts polled by Bloomberg agency expected on average a decrease of 2 million barrels, respondents of S&P Global Commodity Insights – by 500,000 barrels.
The increase in oil inventories is probably due to a temporary reduction in production by U.S. refineries at the end of last month due to frost, notes Market Watch. The current inventory level is about 1% higher than the five-year average.
