Ukraine has raised natural gas reserves in its underground storage facilities (UGS) by 8.374 billion cubic meters (bcm) after the end of the heating season, JSC Ukrtransgaz has said.
Thus, from April 8 to September 22, gas reserves in storage facilities more than doubled, to 15.81 bcm from 7.435 bcm
According to Interfax-Ukraine’s estimates, gas stocks on September 1 through September 22 increased by 1.17 bcm (53.19 million cubic meters [mcm] a day), in August by 1.793 bcm (57.85 mcm per day), in July they expanded by 1.655 bcm (53.38 mcm a day), in June by 1.622 bcm (54.09 mcm per day), in May by 1.632 bcm (52.65 mcm per day), on April 9 through April 30 by 500.84 mcm (22.77 mcm per day).
Ukraine had the smallest gas inventories after the 2017/18 heating season compared with the previous three seasons. Frosts in March and early April were recorded.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine expects that gas stocks as of November 1, 2018, would reach 17 bcm.
Ukrtransgaz, wholly owned by NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy, operates the system of trunk gas pipelines and 12 underground gas storage facilities of the country with a total capacity of 31 bcm.
Odesa Port-Side Plant in October would announce a new tender to select a supplier of natural gas for processing on tolling terms, acting Head of the State Property Fund (SPF) of Ukraine Vitaliy Trubarov has said.
“As are as I understand, the tender will be announced again next month and maybe there are economic entities, possibly foreign ones, that could supply their own gas, and the enterprise could operate,” he told journalists in Odesa on the sidelines of the Ukrainian Financial Forum organized by the ICU investment group.
The head of the SPF said that the final decision on the tender is taken by the company management, since representatives of the SPF are members of the supervisory board and do not have the right to interfere in the economic activities of the enterprise.
Trubarov said that in the current market conditions, the attraction of the supplier of gas on tolling terms is the only opportunity of operating for Odesa Port-Side Plant, since “gas that occupies more than 90% of the production cost is quite expensive, and the prices for end products are subsiding.”
According to him, the conditions of the tender to select the company are absolutely open, and the difficulty to select it is the absence of a large number of interested companies.
He said that the SPF is extremely interested that the plant is operating at the time of the privatization work.
“Our task in this matter is to build the work in a way that at the time of sale this asset was operating, alone or with the help of a supplier of natural gas for processing on tolling terms, but operating. Selling an idle enterprise, in my opinion, is a double problem,” the SPF head said, recalling the even more complex problem of toxic debts of the Odesa Port-Side Plant to the structure of Dmytro Firtash.
Ukraine imported 4.179 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas in January-June 2018 to the tune of $1.150 billion, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine has said. In June alone, Ukraine imported 909.638 million cubic meters (mcm) to the tune of $243.205 million.
Thus, the average price of gas imported by the country in June 2018 was $267.4 per 1,000 cubic meters against $263.5 in May, $310.8 in April, $278.7 in March, $261.1 in February and $279.4 in January.
Counterparts in the six months were companies from Switzerland, which supplied 1.719 bcm worth $473.753 million, Germany (1.355 billion cubic meters, $368.69 million), Poland (333.983 mcm, $98.985 million), the United Kingdom (310.497 mcm, $83.879 million), the Czech Republic (134.362 mcm, $36.236 million), Hungary (117.564 mcm, $31.243 million), Slovakia (88.978 mcm, $23.759 million), Luxembourg (57.82 mcm, $16.155 million), the Netherlands (24.425 mcm, $6.506 million), Austria (21.281 mcm, $6.364 million), and Italy (16.284 mcm, $4.337 million).
Natural gas was not imported from the Russian Federation in January-June 2018.
IBM Ukraine LLC, which is wholly owned by IBM Central and Eastern Europe, has won a tender called by NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy to have its strategy for information technology developed. IBM Ukraine, with a bid of UAH 3.748 million (VAT included), defeated other bidders, namely Ernst & Young (E&Y) and PwC Polska, Naftogaz announced in the ProZorro e-procurement system. The services must be provided by December 31, 2018.
The goal is to determine the level of IT maturity and ensure maximum efficiency from investments in IT. As a result, the target operating model of the company’s IT and the development roadmap should be developed, including a portfolio of projects, the necessary resources and portfolio management processes.
The IT analysis should be carried out for Naftogaz and its subsidiaries, namely Ukrtransgaz, Ukrgazvydobuvannya, Ukrtransnafta, Ukrspetstransgaz, Chornomornaftogaz, and Ukravtogaz.
Naftogaz Ukrainy unites the largest oil and gas producing enterprises of the country. It is a monopolist in transit and storage of natural gas in underground storage facilities, as well as transportation of crude oil by pipelines throughout the country.
GAS, IBM, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, OIL, PRODUCING COMPANY, TENDER
Ukraine in January-May 2018 imported 3.269 billion cubic meters of natural gas for a total of $906.701 million, in particular in May 1.114 billion cubic meters worth $293.571 million, according to the State Statistics Service. Thus, the average price of gas imported by the country in May 2018 was $263.5 per 1,000 cubic meters against $310.8 in April, $278.7 in March, $261.1 in February and $279.4 in January.
The main counterparties for the five months were companies from Switzerland with 1.377 billion cubic meters of gas for $380.827 million, Germany with 937.534 million cubic meters for $261.087 million, Poland with 285.745 million cubic meters for $84.545 million and the UK with 245.215 million cubic meters for $65.281 million.
Gas was not imported from the Russian Federation in January-May-2018.
Chief Executive Officer of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine Andriy Kobolev has expressed fears that the Russian side will do everything to delay negotiations on the extension of the contract for gas transit through Ukraine, expecting possible changes in the country’s top officials and policy. “Most likely, they are waiting for elections in Ukraine and they want to see if there is any change in power and the country’s political course. They will do everything possible to launch the Nord Stream 2 pipeline construction,” Kobolev told the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
Kobolev said Russians now express readiness to study the issue of moving to work within the framework of European legislation, but they are stalling and trying to introduce the issue of negotiating settlement agreements in a trilateral format.
“Until recently, Russians’ position was not constructive. Before the agreement on something under the transit contract, they want to talk about amicable deals within the Stockholm litigation, that is, raise questions that are unacceptable not only for us, but for any party , which won in court,” he said.
Kobolev expressed hope the third party of the negotiations represented by the European Commission would have an impact on Russia, since stalling the process is not advantageous to Ukraine and European consumers of Russian gas.
“As our experience shows, a force majeure signing at the end of 2019 would be a very bad story. I hope that the position of Europeans may lead to a change in the tactics of Russians and they will be forced to negotiate before the end of 2019 about a new format of relations from January 2020. We are working actively on this now. The European Commission is in agreement with us in the application of European law. If we agree on this as a basis, then all further actions become much easier and more effective,” Kobolev said.
