Naftogaz plans to focus its efforts on the growth of new hydrocarbon resources and, for this purpose, increases the role of the geological direction, the director of the Exploration and Production division of the group, Oleksandr Romaniuk, has said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“It all starts with geology. We want to create the best geological expertise in the region, we believe that we can do it. We have a strong geological school, which began to be supported by legionnaires, including our guys who worked in Western companies. We now have a new head of the geological direction, who grew up in foreign oil and gas companies. But we do not need expertise for the sake of expertise. We want to radically change the situation with the resource base, so we are changing the structure,” he said.
According to him, in order to gain access to all available geological information and developments of scientists, the group signs agreements with Nadra Ukrainy, the Ukrainian State Geological Research Institute, the Institute of Geological Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
“In addition, we attract external expertise, which will help structure and more correctly determine the goals. We have created an expert council on the basis of the division, which attracted people who built the industry and have unique knowledge about Ukrainian subsoil,” Romaniuk added.
The top manager of Naftogaz noted that the group’s priorities are areas where it is possible to increase proven reserves from 50 billion cubic meters, since the company’s existing resource base does not compensate for the natural decline in production.
The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers has approved a decree on the implementation of the National Operator in the Tobacco Products Market pilot project.
“On behalf of the minister, please, put the Cabinet of Ministers’ draft decree on the implementation of the National Operator in the Tobacco Products Market pilot project on the agenda,” Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture Svitlana Panaiotidi said during a government meeting on Wednesday.
The decree was approved with a three-day revision.
The document was drafted by the Economy Ministry along with the Finance Ministry in order to strengthen control and take urgent steps to combat tax evasion, smuggling and counterfeit in pursuance of the instructions of the Prime Minister of Ukraine, as well as following the conciliatory meetings held at the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) with the participation of the Economy Ministry, the Finance Ministry, the Interior Ministry, Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU), Svitlana Panaiotidi said.
According to the deputy minister, this pilot project will be implemented by the end of 2021.
Ukrainian enterprises reduced the import of copper and copper products in value terms by 6.1% in January-August 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, to $70.577 million.
According to customs statistics released by the State Customs Service of Ukraine, export of copper and copper products decreased 18.1%, to $47.687 million in the first eight months of 2020.
In August, copper and copper products were imported in the tune of $12.224 million, exported to the tune of $7.759 million.
In addition, Ukraine in January-August reduced the import of nickel and nickel products by 19.2% compared to the same period in 2019, to $47.1 million (in August amounted to $4.321 million), aluminum and aluminum products by 5%, to $248.561 million ($37.751 million). At the same time, the import of lead and lead products decreased 51.1%, to $4.358 million ($779,000), tin and tin products decreased 39.6%, to $1.421 million ($107,000), zinc and zinc products decreased by 35.6%, to $31.493 million ($3.791 million).
In January-August 2020, export of aluminum and aluminum products decreased 4.2% compared with January-August 2019, to $66.746 million (in August amounted to $8.302 million), lead and lead products fell by 9.6%, to $15.225 million ($2.256 million), nickel and nickel products decreased by 52%, to $1.67 million ($147,000). Zinc exports in January-August 2020 amounted to $56,000, while in the same period of 2019 amounted to $416,000 (in August no zinc was exported). The export of tin and tin products in January-August 2020 amounted to $90,000, while in the same period of 2019 amounted to $30,000 (the export amounted to $6,000 in August).
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) plans to reduce the number of coins to six and the number of banknotes also to six by autumn 2023, Deputy NBU Governor Oleksiy Shaban has said.
“We see that in two years there will be six coins and six bills,” he said during a press briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.
Currently, there are banknotes in circulation in Ukraine in denominations of UAH 1, UAH 2, UAH 5, UAH 10, UAH 20, UAH 50, UAH 100, UAH 200, UAH 500 and UAH 1000 and coins in denominations of 10, 25 (until October 1, 2020) and 50 kopecks and UAH 1, UAH 2, UAH 5 and UAH 10.
Ukrainian metal companies saw a fall of 18.3% in foreign currency revenues from exports of ferrous metals in January-August 2020 year-over-year, to $5.212 billion.
According to customs statistics published by the State Customs Service, the share of ferrous metals of total income from exports was 16.7% compared to 19.08% from a year ago.
In August 2020 alone, receipts from ferrous metal exports amounted to $633.953 million.
In January-August 2020, Ukraine decreased imports of similar products by 23.9%, to $652.238 million. In August 2020, the figure was $93.758 million.
Through the aforementioned period, Ukraine decreased metal products exports by 16.3%, to $597.324 million including August deliveries being $69.511 million.
During this period, imports of metal products fell by 24.3%, to $552.072 million, including August imports worth $81.931 million.
As reported, in 2019, Ukraine saw its forex earnings from ferrous metal exports fall by 12.1%, to $8.739 billion. Ukraine saw imports of these products decrease by 6.9%, to $1.252 billion.
Ukraine experienced a 6.1% decline in metal products exports, up to $1.042 billion. Metal imports grew by 13.6% last year, to $1.099 billion.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) within the framework of the Ukraine Urban Public Transport project is providing Lviv with EUR 12 million loans for the purchase of ten new low-floor trams.
According to the press service of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, the relevant agreement between the bank, the Ministry of Infrastructure and the city authorities was signed on September 2.
According to the ministry, another EUR 8.8 million will be additionally financed from the city budget.
Head of the European Investment Bank representative office in Ukraine Jean-Erik DE ZAGON said the EIB loan for new trams in Lviv will contribute to the development of environmentally friendly and sustainable transport. As representatives of the climate-oriented EU bank, they are convinced that a well-functioning tram network can make a significant contribution to reducing the number of cars on roads and thus reducing environmental pollution and mitigating climate change.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy also supported this position.
“We have a clear position – electric transport should dominate. First of all, these are environmental issues, because 30% of all diseases in the world are caused by air quality. And secondly, it is financially profitable. In addition, low-floor trams and trolleybuses manufactured here, in Lviv, contribute to comfortable movement around the city for all its residents, including those with limited mobility,” he said.
