OKKO Group, including the OKKO fuel filling stations network (Galnaftogaz Concern), has imported the first batch of natural gas in the amount of 1 million cubic meters from Europe, the holding’s press service has reported.
“The resources were purchased from the international energy trader AOT Energy. And now it is being pumped into the underground gas storage facilities,” the report said.
Currently, the holding is negotiating the purchase of gas with several other international traders.
“We have already passed all the necessary compliance procedures with five of them, which necessarily precede the signing of contracts,” the head of the new products sale department at OKKO, Volodymyr Ostaschuk, said.
In future, OKKO intends to reach the volume of natural gas purchase of 30 million cubic meters monthly.
“It is planned to increase activity in European gas markets in spring, when the heating season ends, and resources can be purchased 30-40% cheaper than during the peak consumption periods. Afterwards it will be stored in underground storage facilities. OKKO Group will also buy gas from Ukrainian producers,” the press service said.
Nibulon has invested $6 million in the renewal of agricultural machinery since the beginning of 2018.
According to a press release on the company’s website, agreements have been signed for the delivery of seven Fendt 1,038 tractors, five Case IH Axial Flow 6140 harvesters, five John Deere S760 harvesters, five Tiger-Mate II cultivators, three Kinze 3000 seeders and a Lemken Rubin 6 disc harrow.
In addition, the company will buy 22 MTZ 952.3 tractors, which according to the information of Nibulon, have so far been supplied exclusively to the European market.
“This machinery will replenish the fleet of all agricultural branches of Nibulon LLC and will participate in the agricultural season of 2018, which will significantly accelerate the timing of its implementation and improve the efficiency of work,” the company said.
Nibulon LLC was established in 1991. It is one of the largest operators in the grain market of the country. It has elevators with a total capacity of about 2 million tonnes, as well as its own transshipment terminal with a capacity of 5 million tonnes in Mykolaiv.
The volume of construction work in Ukraine in 2017 increased by 20.9% compared to 2016, while the increase in 2016 from 2015 was 17.4%, according to the revised data.
According to the State Statistics Service, the data are given without taking into account the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea and Sevastopol and part of the ATO zone.
According to the agency, the volume of construction work in December 2017 increased by 9.7%, while compared with November 2017 it soared by 46.4%.
According to the report, in 2017 the growth in the volume of construction was observed in all spheres of construction. It grew by 20.2% for non-residential construction, while the figure in construction of residential buildings rose by 11.7%. The growth of 17.8% was recorded in construction of engineering facilities.
In 2017, construction work grew in 20 regions, as well as in Kyiv city, where it was 30.1%, to UAH 24.8 billion.
According to the State Statistics Service, the largest growth was seen in Kirovohrad region (by 53.4%, to UAH 1.4 billion), Zhytomyr region (38.9%, to UAH 1.5 billion) and Odesa region (38.4%, to UAH 10.4 billion).
The decline in construction work was seen in Luhansk region (27%, to UAH 600 million), Sumy region (4.1%, to UAH 1.23 billion) and Volyn region (1.6%, to UAH 1.5 billion). Construction works did not change in Chernivtsi region (UAH 1.15 billion).
Alexander Trading House LLC (Zaporizhia) plans to build a three-storey shopping and entertainment center with a total area of 104,000 square meters in the center of Zaporizhia.
According to the developer of the Delta Ukraine project, the center will be located near Pushkin Park in the central part of the city, the planned construction period is 36 months.
According to the project, one floor of the building will be used for food courts and an entertainment zone, two more floors for 300 stores.
The total investment in the construction will be about UAH 1.4 billion, one of the investors will be the co-founder of Alexander Group, Volodymyr Kaltsev.
According to Delta Ukraine, the investor expects to attract large international retailers to the shopping mall, in particular, Zara, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius, Oysho, Armani Jeans, Calvin Klein, Gucci, and Baldinini.
The general designer of the project is Megaline, which built the Lavina Mall shopping center in Kyiv.
The project also provides for the reconstruction of Pushkin Park, investments in which will amount to about UAH 64 million.
PJSC Ukrtransgaz and Powernext (France) intend to cooperate in the creation of spot and futures exchange markets for gas trading in Ukraine, the company’s press service has said, with reference to the signed memorandum.
“For Ukrtransgaz, this is another step towards integration with European gas transportation operators, a further development of the gas market in Ukraine,” the report said.
According to the press service, Powernext is the provider of the pan-European gas trading platform PEGAS, which allows market participants to sell natural gas at 12 hubs in nine countries. Today it is the main trading platform for natural gas sales in Europe. After establishing cooperation with the Central European Gas Hub (CEGH) in 2016 and integrating the Czech gas pipeline into the PEGAS platform in December 2017, Powernext began to integrate into Eastern Europe.
Ukrtransgaz notes that the main obstacle to the development of exchange trade in Ukraine is a lack of modern information systems and clearing mechanisms, which are designed to guarantee the execution of transactions concluded on the exchange and minimize counterparty risks. At the same time, the country needs to apply market mechanisms for introducing the daily balancing regime and further development of exchange trade in gas.
PEGAS is a pan-European gas trading platform. It is part of EEX Group operated by Powernext. PEGAS provides its members with access to all products on a single platform and allows them to trade in natural gas contracts in the markets of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, France, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, and the UK.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in 2017 invested EUR 800 million in Ukraine, which is 37% more than a year ago, EBRD Director in Ukraine Sevki Acuner has said.
“This is a significant rise since 2016 and a strong start for 2018. We hope to reach the indicators of 2014 and 2015, when investments exceeded EUR 1 billion,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to the banker, the volume of investments in 2018 will depend on several reasons, including the privatization process.
“I think that in this context the law on privatization, passed in parliament last week, will allow attracting more large foreign investors,” Acuner stressed.
Earlier, the EBRD director in Ukraine expressed opinion that the bank’s investments in the implementation of Ukrainian projects in 2017 could reach EUR 1 billion.
As reported, in 2017 Ukraine became the third largest recipient of EBRD loans following Turkey, which received EUR 1.54 billion in loans, as well as Egypt with EUR 1.41 billion loans.
