German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was not as critical as Kyiv about the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and was in favor of Ukraine preserving its transit role after 2019. “We know that Ukraine is against this project. I am less critical about the project and I am in favor of Ukraine having guarantees, that Ukraine will preserve its transit role,” she said at a meeting with the Ukrainian parliament speaker, Andriy Parubiy, and the heads of parliamentary groups in Kyiv.
She noted that the negotiations on Nord Stream 2 are being conducted with both Russia and the European Commission. “The matter concerns creating a transit agreement. We want Ukraine to remain an important transit country,” Merkel emphasized. The chancellor noted that in addition to Nord Stream there is also TurkStream. “Thus, gas flows are expanding from Russia to the European Union, but this does not mean that we want to reject the transit role of Ukraine. I think that gas transit revenues are extremely important for the budget of Ukraine,” she said.
Merkel noted that Berlin “very seriously” considers the strategic opinion of Ukraine on the issue of Nord Stream 2. “We want to see Ukraine as a partner with respect to transit,” she said.
Prior to this, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy called on Merkel to study in more detail the arguments of Ukraine against the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
“The construction of Nord Stream 2 could bring imbalance and threaten the security of not only Ukraine but the entire European space. And this is the position of the Ukrainian parliament. I would ask that the arguments of the Ukrainian side be studied more in detail,” Parubiy said during a meeting with the German chancellor in Kyiv.
The speaker called for supporting the position of the Ukrainian parliament on the Nord Stream 2 issue.
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
JSC Ukrtransgaz in January-September 2018 increased net loss by 35% or UAH 5.671 billion year-over-year, to UAH 22.011 billion.
According to a financial report of the company posted on its website, net revenue fell by 7% or UAH 2.84 billion, to UAH 36.688 billion, and gross loss rose by 73.7% or UAH 5.669 billion, to UAH 13.36 billion.
As reported, in 2017, Ukrtransgaz increased net loss 4.4-fold, to UAH 24.181 billion. Net revenue grew by 31.2%, to UAH 51.181 billion, and gross loss totaled UAH 14.449 billion compared with UAH 1.948 billion of gross profit in 2016.
Ukrtransgaz, fully owned by Naftogaz Ukrainy, operates a system of gas trunk pipelines and 12 underground gas storage facilities in the country.
Astarta agroindustrial holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, in 2018 harvested 183,000 tonnes of oilseeds, which is 20% more than a year ago, the company’s press service has reported. “In particular, 67,000 tonnes of soybeans and 116,000 tonnes of sunflower were harvested with an average yield of 2.9 tonnes per ha (2017 – 2.2 tonnes per ha of soybeans and 2.3 tonnes per ha of sunflower, respectively),” the company said.
According to the press service, at present, Astarta continues harvesting corn: 65% of the area is threshed with an average yield of 9 tonnes per ha.
“In general, in the current season, the company expects for the first time to overcome the mark of 1 million tonnes of gross harvest of grain and oilseeds,” the agricultural holding said.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in Poltava, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Cherkasy and Kharkiv regions.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman will participate in a business forum in Germany that starts on November 29. “I will be happy to visit Germany in late November to participate in the third business forum,” Groysman said during his meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Kyiv on November 1. Also, he recalled that a Ukrainian-German chamber of commerce started to work recently. It was created on Merkel’s initiative with Ukraine’s support.
“I think that we are now in a very good dimension of our relations. And your visit is the latest evidence that theses relations will have a very good perspective in the future,” Groysman said.
Ukraine will participate in the Third Ukrainian-German Investments Business Forum on November 29.
