Prices for oil of reference brands are declining Monday morning after the previous session they rose to their highest marks since June 7.
Negative impact on investors’ moods is given by concerns about the growth rate of the global economy, says Trading Economics. In particular, several major Western banks downgraded forecasts for GDP growth in China, the world’s largest importer of oil, based on recently published statistical data showing a slowdown in economic recovery in the country after the lifting of pandemic restrictions.
Brent crude futures for August delivery on London’s ICE Futures Exchange stood at $75.5 a barrel as of 7:56 a.m. ET, down $1.11 (1.45%) from the close of the previous session. Those contracts rose $0.94 (1.2%) to $76.61 a barrel on Friday.
The price of futures for WTI crude oil for July at electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) fell by $1.1 (1.5%) to $70.68 per barrel on Friday morning. At the end of previous session the contracts increased by $1.16 (1.6%) to $71.78 per barrel.
Over the past week, Brent gained 2.4% and WTI gained 2.3%, according to Dow Jones Market Data. This was the most significant weekly rise since early April.
DTEK Energy Holding has invested almost UAH 2bn in repairs of its thermal power plants since the beginning of March, DTEK’s executive director Dmytro Sakharuk said.
“Now nine units are under scheduled repairs. We started the repair campaign back in March. We spent almost 2 billion hryvnias to ensure these repairs. Plus we actively extract coal. We have to put 28 faces into operation, 11 of them have already been put into operation and two more faces are to work this month,” – he said during a national telethon.
At the same time Sakharuk said that in general in the power system there are no critical situations that would lead to limitation of consumers, except for point blackouts due to shelling. According to him, under conditions of summer repair campaign of TPP and NPP, reduction of HPS generation with the end of the floods and because of the Kakhovska HPP blowing up, the thermal generation maintains the balance in the power system “plus the imports arrive in certain hours, which overlap the deficit. At the same time he pointed out that the economical consumption of electricity is always necessary, including from the economic point of view, in order to pay less for the resource.
As DTEK noted in its Telegram Channel, in May 2023 the company’s TPPs generated 20% more electricity than in May last year. In total, they have generated more than 5.7 billion kWh of electricity since the beginning of the year, which equals the average annual consumption of about 1.9 million households.
As reported, DTEK energy holding by the beginning of June repaired four power units of its thermal power plants in preparation for the autumn-winter period 2023/2024, which is 15% of the total number of power units planned for repair (a total of 27 power units are planned to be repaired within the repair campaign 2023).
Overall, DTEK needs almost UAH 7 billion to repair equipment damaged and destroyed by the enemy at its thermal power plants.
Cholera-like vibrio, which can cause acute intestinal infections, was found in the water in Mykolaiv region, which was subjected to flooding after the explosion of the Kakhovka hydropower plant by the Russians, reported the Mykolaiv Regional Center for Disease Control and Prevention under the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.
“As of June 18, 2023, according to the results of the research, cholera vibrio in the water has not been isolated, but cholera-like vibrio (which is a marker for the possible presence of cholera vibrio) has been isolated in the following places,” the report says.
In particular, in Ingulets – Snigirevka, Buzhsky estuary – beach “Chaika”, recreational area “Namiv” in Nikolaev, Ingulets – Nikolaev, Dnepro-Bug estuary.
It is noted that according to microbiological indicators – lactose-positive E. coli (at the permissible level of 5000 units) is in Ingulets – 240000000, in Dnepro-Bug estuary – 6200-13000.
“On sanitary and chemical indicators in the city of Ingulets did not meet the standards of dissolved oxygen, dry residue, chlorides, iron and biological oxygen consumption, in the Dnepro-Bug estuary there is an excess of maximum allowable concentrations of ammonia,” – added in the Center.
It is also reported that there are no petroleum products and pesticides in the samples taken for the study.
Also, to prevent acute intestinal infections, the Control Center recommends not drinking water, not swimming in open reservoirs, not consuming river fish (including dried, salted, smoked), personal hygiene rules and treating hands with antiseptics.
Ukrainian agrarians are completing the sowing season: last week they sowed 14 thousand hectares of grain and leguminous crops, compared to 133.3 thousand hectares during the previous week and 193.5 thousand hectares a week earlier, the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food reported on Friday.
According to its data as of June 15, the area under spring cereals and leguminous plants reached 5.618 million hectares, which is 3% higher than in March forecast.
Sown area is 9.3% lower than last year: as of June 9, 2022, according to reports of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, they accounted to 6196.6 million hectares.
The gap is formed mainly due to the most popular crops – corn, spring barley, sown by 13,5% and 14,9%, respectively, less than last year’s and amount to 4.014 and 810.0 thousand hectares.
At the same time, corn is 11% ahead of the Ministry of Agricultural Policy forecast of 3.618 million hectares, while barley was sown on 78% of the expected 1.041 million hectares.
Sown millet is exceeded last year’s figures, with 49.2 thousand hectares of area, but it is 82% of this year’s expected area.
At the same time areas under other crops are already more than a year ago. It concerns spring wheat – 271.1 thousand hectares (41.9%), pea – 138.5 thousand hectares (5.7%), buckwheat – 119.7 thousand hectares (59%).
Agrarians of 14 regions (Vinnitsa, Zakarpattya, Ivano-Frankovsk, Kirovograd, Lviv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopol, Khmelnytsky, Cherkasy, Chernihiv and Chernivtsi regions) have sown spring crops, as the Ministry of Agriculture informed.
As compared to prewar 2021, spring cereals and leguminous crops are 24.7% lower, sunflower – 17.4%, sugar beet – 6.2%, while the soybeans are 27.6% higher.
Mingaropolitiki informed about the end of sowing of sugar beets, which amounted to 213.1 thousand hectares, or 97% of a plan. The areas under sunflower and soybeans are lagging behind the plan by 94% and 96% respectively, amounting to 5283.8 and 1773.5 thousand hectares.
As it was informed, winter wheat sowing this season amounted to 4166 thousand ha (-834 thousand ha to the previous one), winter barley – 536 thousand ha (-255 thousand ha), rape – 1374 thousand ha (+110 thousand ha).
According to the forecast of the Ministry of late March, the area of grain and leguminous crops in 2023 will amount to 10.24 million hectares, which is 1.4 million less than in 2022, while under oilseeds they will grow by 0.92 million hectares – to 8.85 million.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a $30 million financial package to Astarta, one of the country’s largest sugar producers, to cope with the adverse conditions caused by Russia’s war against Ukraine and ensure more sustainable operations.
According to the agroholding’s announcement on the Warsaw Stock Exchange website Friday, the package consists of a $21 million loan from the EBRD and $9 million from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) aimed at sustainable development. Technical cooperation support for the legal review of the operation will be provided by the Technical Cooperation Fund of Japan and the EBRD.
“Funding for the holding company’s investment plan will help Astarte continue to develop agriculture, soybean processing and sugar production amid the instability associated with the war. The liquidity support provided through this loan will help support operations and maintain the production and export volumes needed for food security, while supporting Astarta’s nearly 7,000 employees along with employees of supply chain partners,” the statement noted.
According to the agri-holding, the financing will be used to modernize and improve the energy efficiency of existing production facilities, implement climate-smart agricultural practices to improve business sustainability, reduce production and energy costs while improving productivity and operational efficiency. The funds raised will also be used as working capital to support the agricultural holding’s operations at pre-war levels.
This is the first transaction in Ukraine supported by the EBRD’s High Impact Climate Program for the corporate sector financed by the Clean Technology Fund. The loan is characterized by an innovative blended finance structure where the price is linked to achieving climate change goals, Astarta noted.
As reported, the EBRD, which accelerated lending to Ukraine after the Russian invasion in February 2022, pledged to invest €3 billion in the country between 2022 and 2023. Food security is one of the five priority investment areas, along with energy security, vital infrastructure, trade finance and private sector support.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It consists of six sugar factories, farms with land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, oil extraction plant in Globino (Poltava region), seven elevators and biogas complex.
Agroindustrial holding Astarta, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, received EUR65.16 mln of net profit in 2022, which is 46.8% less compared with 2021. The company’s EBITDA decreased by 23.2% to EUR154.77 mln last year, while revenues increased by 3.8% to EUR510.07 mln.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has arrived in Beijing, scheduled to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Sunday, Bloomberg reported.
“According to a senior State Department official who briefed reporters in Tokyo on his way to China, a smaller meeting was to be followed by dinner. Blinken may also meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and give a speech at a news conference before he leaves,” the website said.
It noted that Blinken is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit China in the past five years.
The main purpose of the secretary of state’s visit is to try to rebuild high-level channels of communication with Chinese counterparts, including between the U.S. and Chinese militaries, to deal with the intense competition between the two countries, the senior official said.
Earlier Saturday, U.S. President Joe Biden said he “hopes to meet with Xi again in the next few months.”
