Public joint-stock company Ukrtransgaz on June 22 and June 23 announced 12 tenders to buy gas for technological needs and balancing in the amount of 2.437 billion cubic meters with the expected cost of UAH 21.202 billion (VAT not included).
The bids can be submitted before July 23 and July 24 (depending on the lot). The auctions will take place on August 28 and August 29.
The final price of gas to be paid by Ukrtransgaz to the winners of the tenders will be determined, taking into account quotations at NetConnect Germany (NCG) in the period when gas is delivered.
Ukrainian enterprises in January-May 2018 increased production of ice cream by 1.7% compared to the same period in 2017, to 42,800 tonnes.
“In January-May the volume of ice cream production in Ukraine amounted to 42,800 tonnes, growth stood at 1.7%. For the five months, 2,900 tonnes were exported, a growth of 23.1%. Ice cream exports to the EU amounted to 232 tonnes, or 8% of the total export. I expect that by the end of this year production and exports will show growth,” Ihor Bartkovsky, the president of the Association of Ukrainian Producers “Ice Cream and Frozen Food,” at a press conference in Kyiv.
According to him, ice cream is exported from Ukraine to more than 50 countries.
“In 2017 Ukraine produced 96,600 tonnes of ice cream, which is 2.4% more than in 2016. Exports totaled more than 5,000 tonnes, an increase of 13.5%, in particular, 336 tonnes were exported to EU countries, or 7% of total exports,” Bartkovsky said.
He noted that over the past three years, ice cream consumption in Ukraine has increased.
At the same time, ice cream consumption per capita in Ukraine remains low.
France’s Alstom, the producer of rolling stock and infrastructure solutions, plans to open a representative office in Ukraine in several months, in particular, the office in Kyiv, Managing Director for Western and Central Asia at Alstom Bernard Peille told Interfax-Ukraine during the presentation of the first freight electric locomotive for Azerbaijan Railways in Astana (Kazakhstan). “We have found a person who would present the interests of Alstom in Ukraine and develop business for us. This person would be also responsible for opening of our office in Kyiv,” he said.
Peille also said that Alstom plans to open the office in Kyiv in coming months, adding that he cannot specify the date, as many things depend on administrative work in Ukraine, which the company does not know well.
Prima T8 AZ8A freight electric locomotive presented in Astana on Wednesday is made under a contract signed by the company and Azerbaijan Railways for supply of 50 locomotives, including Prima M4 AZ4A passenger locomotives.
Norway is considering the possibility of expanding investments in the energy sector of Ukraine, Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide has said. “We will continue to provide support for energy efficiency, reforms, our dialogue with Naftogaz, corporate governance … We are also looking at how we can expand this support,” she said at the second international Ukraine Reform Conference, held in Copenhagen (Denmark). She noted that Ukraine’s reform efforts in recent years have stimulated a flow of investment in the energy sector of Ukraine, in particular, in renewable energy.
However, we would like to see more investment between Ukraine and Norway in both directions, she added, stressing that investments are possible as a result of effective structural reforms.
A truly independent Anti-Corruption Court will only become a catalyst for private investment, she said.
At the same time, the official said that even pre-election moods should not prevent Ukraine from realizing its goals, so that the expectations of Western partners remain at a high level.
The execution of awards of international arbitration courts issued not in favor of a state, in particular, the Russian Federation, remains difficult, Senior Lawyer of EVRIS Law Firm Maksym Zamikhovsky has said. “What unites Yukos, Crimea and Franz Sedelmayer? The awards of international arbitration courts to recover compensation for the actual expropriation of investments and assets of nonresident claimants from the Russian Federation, but another aspect unites all three lawsuits – the problematic recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards against the state,” he told the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
The lawyer said that, in particular, one of the complexities of execution of these awards is challenging the competence of the arbitration itself, which may entail the cancellation of its award on formal grounds.
“This is exactly what happened in the Yukos case and, probably, will be undertaken by the Russian Federation in a dispute with the owners of Crimean assets,” he said.
Zamikhovsky said that since the basis for applying to arbitration court is the relevant bilateral agreement between states or an international treaty, the Russian Federation uses a different interpretation of the terms “foreign investment”, trying to prove the absence of this element.
“For example, in the Yukos case the thesis of the internal nature of the dispute applied, since the beneficiaries of the plaintiffs are citizens of the Russian Federation. As for the Crimean assets, the Russian Federation does not recognize foreign investments, believing that they were committed by residents of Ukraine and on its territory.
“The fact of the subsequent expropriation of the assets of the Russian side in this case is silent,” he said.
At the same time, the lawyer said that the second, more large-scale obstacle is the concept of sovereign immunity, according to which recovery from the state without its consent is not allowed. However, immunity does not apply to disputes in which the state acts as a “private person” (jure gestionis), as well as cases where there is consent to its withdrawal.
“The question whether the ratification of the international treaty on investment protection is consent to possible enforcement of arbitration awards, due to violation of its terms, remains controversial. The answer to it will either fill the arbitration awards with real force, or make them no more than a beautiful declaration,” the lawyer said.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has approved the purchase of a controlling stake in Dymerka Solar Poland (Poland) by ACCIONA Energia Global (Poland, the subsidiary of the eponymous company in Spain), the press service of the committee has reported.
Dymerka Solar Poland was registered to implement a project of UDP developing group (Kyiv) to expand the capacity of Dymerka solar power plant (Kyiv region) from 6 MW to 57.6 MW.
As reported, UDP from UFuture investment group has arranged a joint project to expand Dymerka solar power plant with Spain’s ACCIONA Energia Global. It is planned that the Spanish company will invest EUR 54.7 million.
Majority shareholder of UDP is Ukrainian businessman Vasyl Khmelnytsky.
ACCIONA ENERGIA'S, ANTIMONOPOLY COMMITTEE, PROJECT, SOLAR POWER PLANT, UDP
