Business news from Ukraine

Business news from Ukraine

Ukraine’s DTEK to invest up to $130 mln in gas production this year

DTEK plans to invest $120-130m in gas production in 2023, the company’s CEO Maxim Timchenko said. “This year we plan to invest $120-130 mln in production. 70% of these funds are for the development of new fields,” he said in an interview with Forbes Ukraine.

According to him, most of the company’s oil and gas assets have already passed peak production, the natural decline at operating wells is 15-18%.

“The only way to compensate for the decline is to develop new fields. This year we are starting to drill on recently purchased licenses… We plan to start drilling in the Mayorovskoye area in the fourth quarter of 2023,” Timchenko said.

The head of DTEK is convinced that Ukraine has huge prospects for gas production at a depth of 6000-7000 meters. “Thanks to the latest technologies, production at such depths is now paying off,” he specified.

Timchenko also said that at the end of 2022, DTEK’s enterprises produced 2 billion cubic meters of gas. At the same time, at the end of the year they had 0.6 billion cubic meters in underground storage facilities due to a drop in consumption and export ban, which led to liquidity problems throughout the first half of this year.

“But now Naftogaz has started buying back gas after all. I was skeptical about Naftogaz’s ability to buy back gas, but NAK has indeed entered the market and is actively buying back gas. Accordingly, we have liquidity, which allows us to fulfill our investment program,” he said.

At the same time, the head of DTEK believes that the authorities “need to discuss the topic of resuming Ukrainian gas exports with the market, because it has a significant impact on the development of Ukrainian gas production”.

As reported, the companies included in DTEK Naftogaz in November 2022 acquired at an open auction the right to develop two gas fields in the Poltava region: Mayorivska area for UAH 1.102 billion and Birkovsko-Zinkovska area for UAH 211 million.

“DTEK Naftogaz” in 2021 increased gas production by 12% (by 0.22 billion cubic meters) compared to 2020 – up to 2.06 billion cubic meters.

“DTEK was established in 2005 to manage the energy assets of Rinat Akhmetov’s System Capital Management (SCM) group.

,

Uzbekistan GTL starts selling its own liquefied gas

The Uzbekistan GTL plant has launched wholesale sales of liquefied natural gas, the press service of Uzbekneftegaz reports.
The first batch of 161 tons of fuel was traded at the Republican Commodity Exchange on June 22. Liquefied gas is offered at a starting price of 3.12 million soums per ton and is supplied on the terms of the Shurtan gas chemical complex.
According to the report, LPG is produced from a mixture of propane and butane under pressure. Its small volume simplifies transportation and delivery to consumers, including to the most remote areas.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev launched Uzbekistan GTL in December 2021, after 5 years of construction. The plant processes natural gas into jet fuel, diesel fuel, liquefied gas, oil and other products.
In February 2022, the plant launched its own hydrogen production, and four months later, it started producing synthetic oil and diesel fuel from it. In September, the plant also started producing synthetic jet fuel.
The first batch of GTL diesel went on sale at the beginning of last July. Since then, the manufacturer has reduced the selling price of the fuel five times, by a total of almost 35% compared to the original price.
https://www.spot.uz

,

China increases its own oil and gas production

China increased oil production by 2.7 percent in May compared with the same month last year, to 18.1 million tons, according to the State Statistics Administration of the country.
Refining output soared 15.4 percent last month to 62 million tons, the second-highest total ever recorded. This was due, among other things, to the completion of scheduled maintenance work at a number of refineries.
Natural gas production in China in May increased by 7.2% and reached 19 billion cubic meters, since the beginning of this year – by 5.3% to 97.3 billion cubic meters.
Oil imports last month totaled 51.44 million tons, up 12.2 percent from the same month a year earlier, customs said. Gas imports rose 17.3% to 10.64 million tons, the highest since January 2022.

, , ,

Moldova reduced gas prices for consumers by almost 40%

The National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE) of Moldova has decided to reduce the gas tariff for final consumers to 18.06 lei per 1 cubic meter (including VAT).
The National Agency has urgently examined the request of Moldovagaz company at a meeting on Wednesday.
As earlier reported, on June 5, Moldovagaz submitted a request for gas tariff decrease to ANRE. The company explained its request by the decrease in purchase prices of natural gas. The distributor asked to reduce the weighted average tariff by 36.8% – down to 16,492 thousand Moldovan lei per 1,000 cubic meters. It was proposed to reduce the final tariff for residential consumers, including VAT, by 31.9% – from MDL 29.27 to MDL 19.93 per 1 cubic meter.
Thus, the tariff was reduced by 38%.
The last time the gas prices in Moldova were reviewed in autumn 2022, the prices for households rose by 27.3% – from MDL 23 to MDL 29.27 per 1 cubic meter.
Natural gas tariffs in Moldova are set by ANRE upon request of suppliers.
The official exchange rate as of June 7 – 17.82 lei/$1.

,

Austria prepares for possible termination of Russian gas supplies via Ukraine – Chancellor

Austria is preparing for a possible cessation of Russian gas if its transit through Ukraine is stopped, Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer told reporters in Chisinau.
“We are constantly preparing for serious challenges. That is why our storage is already 75% full. And we are also negotiating with those who have new volumes of gas. If Russian gas runs out completely, OMV is already working on that,” he said.
Asked whether he would talk to Ukrainian President Zelensky about it, Nehammer said: “This is not the main topic today. It’s about the war in Ukraine. But it’s always an issue of security of energy supply, which is on Austria’s agenda. So it is always a topic that is taken into consideration.”

,

“Ukrtransgas” starts gas injection season in preparation for next winter

Ukrtranshaz JSC, the operator of Ukraine’s underground gas storage facilities, has started the gas injection season as part of preparations for next winter, Naftogaz of Ukraine board chairman Oleksiy Chernyshov said.
“Now gas is being accumulated for the next heating season 2023/2024. Due to favorable weather conditions, the previous season of gas withdrawal from underground storage facilities was one of the shortest in Ukraine in recent years,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Chernyshov also specifies that during the period from October 7, 2022, to mid-April 2023, 5.572 billion cubic meters of gas has been withdrawn from Ukrainian underground storage facilities.
As reported, at the beginning of March 2023, Naftohaz said in a presentation by the company to holders of defaulted Eurobonds that 13.9 billion cubic meters of natural gas was used during the heating season 2022/2023, of which 1 billion cubic meters was imported, 5.3 billion cubic meters – gas lift from UGS, and 7.6 billion cubic meters – extraction by Ukrhazvydobuvannya.
At the beginning of March 2023 there were about 10 billion cubic meters of gas in the Ukrainian underground gas storages, the NJSC sets a task to accumulate at least 15 billion cubic meters of gas in the storages by the beginning of the season 2023/2024.
The system of 12 underground gas storages of Ukrtransgas, which is 100% owned by Naftogaz of Ukraine, has a total nominal capacity of 31 billion cubic meters. m, and includes Bilche-Volytsko-Uherske UGS (17.05 billion cubic meters), Uherske (1.9 billion cubic meters), Dashavske (2.15 billion cubic meters), Oparske (1.92 billion cubic meters), Bogorodchanske (2.3 billion cubic meters), Krasnopartyzanske (2.5 billion cubic meters). The following three categories of cu.m. are currently under review: Krasnopartyzanske (1.5 bcm), Solokhivske (1.3 bcm), Olyshevske (0.31 bcm), Proletarske (1 bcm), Kehychivske (0.7 bcm), Krasnopopopivske (0.42 bcm) and Verhunske (0.4 bcm) located in the temporarily occupied territory.)

,