PJSC “Ukrnafta” in 2023 plans to increase production of oil gas condensate by 6% compared to last year, the company’s director Sergiy Koretskyy said.
“We have set the task not just to keep the natural production decline, but to increase production already this year by 6%,” he wrote on his Facebook page, without specifying the expected volumes.
According to him, Ukrnafta plans to increase its drilling this year, an ambitious development strategy is being formulated, and goals for buying new licenses have been set.
Koretskyy noted that the company has passed compliance procedures of two state and one private bank, credit lines have already been opened for all three;
In addition, “Ukrnafta” is working on the return of multibillion hryvnia accounts receivable and expects that the optimization processes carried out in a short time will bring hundreds of millions of hryvnia savings in annual terms.
The budget for 2023 was formed with record targets for net profit, he said.
As reported, the Supreme Commanders of November 5, 2022 decided during martial law to withdraw to the state as the military property of the shares “Ukrnafta” (except for the controlling stake in NAK “Naftogaz of Ukraine”). Before the seizure, the structures of Ihor Kolomoyskyy and Hennadiy Boholyubov owned about 42% of Ukrnafta shares.
“Ukrnafta owns 85 special permits for production of hydrocarbons. On its balance sheet there are 1809 oil and 153 gas wells. The company owns 537 gasoline stations, of which 448 were operational at the beginning of February 2023. The rest were either damaged as a result of military operations or are located in the temporarily occupied territories.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih PJSC (AMKR, Dnipropetrovsk oblast) has cut production of metallurgical coke at its coke-chemical division by 68.1% in 2022 compared with the previous year – to 922 thousand tons.
A company representative told Interfax-Ukraine news agency that in December the company produced 41,000 tonnes of metallurgical coke.
At the same time in 2022 the gross coke output at AMKR amounted to 1.060 mln tonnes, including 47 thnd tonnes in December.
Coke production at ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih for 2021 increased by 9.2% to 2.890 million tonnes, including 250 thousand tonnes produced in December.
In 2022 the company supplied over 1.4 million tonnes of coal concentrate, including 469 thousand tonnes of domestically mined coal, 390 thousand tonnes from Russia (pre-war), 65 thousand tonnes from Kazakhstan, 54 thousand tonnes from Poland, 15 thousand tonnes from the Czech Republic, 218 thousand tonnes from the USA and 192 thousand tonnes from Australia. In December, the AMKR supplied 108,000 tons of coals, including 72,000 tons from domestic production, 21,000 tons from Poland, 11,000 tons from the United States and 4,000 tons from Australia.
As Ukrainian coke plants reported, in 2022 the production of gross coke with 6% moisture decreased by 59% compared to the previous year, to 3.91 million tons, including 3.354 million tons of metallurgical coke. In 2022, 4.594 million tonnes of coal concentrate were supplied to the domestic CCPs, including 3.158 million tonnes produced in Ukraine.
“ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is the largest producer of rolled steel in Ukraine. It specializes in the production of long products, in particular rebars and wire rod.
ArcelorMittal owns Ukraine’s largest mining and metallurgical plant, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, and a number of smaller companies, in particular ArcelorMittal Beryslav PJSC.
Last year Ukraine produced 1.13 million tons of nitrogen fertilizers, which is 4.6 times less compared to 5.2 million tons in 2021, while their import rose 3.1 times – to 4.3 million tons from 1.4 million tons, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine said on Facebook.
The Ministry specified with reference to the head of the analytical project “Infoindustry” Dmitry Gordeichuk that the volume of domestic production of nitrogen fertilizers in Ukraine before the full-scale Russian invasion exceeded imports due to continuous operation of plants “Rivneazot”, “Azot” North Donetsk Association and “Azot” Cherkasy, “Dniproazot” also worked with intervals.
However, according to him, with the beginning of the war only two plants “Rivneazot” and Cherkasy “Azot” remained working, while Severodonetsk “Azot” stopped working and was significantly damaged by the occupants. Such changes significantly changed the statistics on the market for the worse: as a result, only 1.13 million tons of fertilizers could be produced in 2022, the lack of which compensated for the import of 4.3 million tons.
“The topic of fertilizer shortage is one of the most urgent for the agricultural sector and Ukrainian farmers, because we are waiting for the spring sowing season, which the whole world will be watching. Ukraine is one of the leading countries on the agricultural map and its production volume determines the world price on the grain market and the food security of the world. Accordingly, the liquidity of farmers is a topical issue for the Ministry of Agrarian Policy” – quotes Minister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Solskyy as saying.
According to the Minister, until July 2022 Ukrainian farmers were still able to buy fertilizers at pre-war prices, but in October the prices for ammonium nitrate rose from 27 thousand UAH / ton to 37 thousand UAH / ton, which created a critical situation for the Ukrainian farmers. He stressed that usually farmers are guided by the rule, according to which a ton of nitrate must not cost more than 2.5 tons of wheat and a ton of urea – not more than 3.0-3.5 tons of corn, while in 2022 these figures were exceeded two or three times.
Ministry of Agrarian Policy noted that today it is difficult to calculate the exact cost of fertilizers for modern Ukrainian agrarian, but the cost of basic nitrogen fertilizer per 1 ha of corn is approximately 8-9 thousand UAH without fertilizing and fuel costs, which have also increased in price. Therefore, the final amount is not attractive for the agrarian at the moment.
“Much depends on climatic conditions, because fertilizers work as a complex nutrition and the main thing is weather conditions. But if the agrarian will apply less fertilizer by 30% or more, then the drop in yield can be twofold. Therefore, support of international partners in this matter is very important to us, “- First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy Taras Vysotsky quotes it.
As previously reported, according to estimates of Group DF, the main fertilizer producer in Ukraine, the fertilizer market of the country in 2022 decreased by 45-50% – from 4.75 million tons to 2-2.9 million tons.
ArcelorMittal Krivoy Rog PJSC (AMKR) Krivoy Rog Mining and Metallurgical Plant is hoping for an improvement in the power supply situation in the first half of this year and an increase in production from the current 25% to 50% of the plant’s capacity, the plant’s CEO Mauro Longobardo said.
“We can’t produce more than 25 percent because we don’t have enough energy. Once we have stable energy, we can increase production … and get to 50%,” he said on the sidelines of a business forum on the rapid recovery of Ukraine in Luxembourg, organized by the Ukrainian-Luxembourg Business Club.
Longobardo clarified that the company is currently operating at 25 percent for both ore and steel production, and consumes about 125 MW, compared to the pre-war normal consumption of about 450 MW.
The CEO also added that AMKR started importing electricity after the government’s recent decision and is now happy with the result, although the price of imports adds to the negative impact on the cost of production.
According to him, despite the low utilization rate, the entire team of 26,000 employees is retained, of which about 10,000 to 12,000 are employed in production depending on the day, but assistance is also provided to others. “We are investing in keeping all of our people during this year,” the general manager said.
He said that with an adequate power supply, a further 50 percent capacity limitation is already due to logistical problems. As Longobardo pointed out, AMKR is actively developing new routes alternative to the pre-war sea routes, but tentatively the new destinations to Poland and southern Ukraine will only allow for 50 percent production.
“We just need to test them when we have 50 percent available,” the general manager added.
According to him, without the resumption of work of the main ports of Ukraine, the combine will not be able to export products or provide imports of coal. Longobardo clarified that now AMKR works entirely on Ukrainian coal, as the work of the route of traditional coal imports from Kazakhstan from another “subsidiary” ArcelorMittal is currently interrupted.
At the same time, he stressed that there are other obstacles on the way to increasing production to 50%. First, Longobardo explained, the power supply must be reliable, since the plant has three blast furnaces, of which one is still operating. Going to 50% would mean working with two blast furnaces, since the third one is the largest, and a sudden stoppage of the furnace in case of power supply problems is fraught with damage.
The second major problem the general manager cited was rising production costs and logistics. “Cost is already killed. When I tell you logistics are possible, it’s true. But it’s $100 per ton more expensive than what I was paying before,” Longobardo noted.
He clarified that previously the transport shoulder to the port of Nikolaev was 250 km, there were also river deliveries, whereas now it is 1500 km to Gdansk and more costs for transshipment due to the different gauge in Ukraine and Europe.
“ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is the largest producer of rolled steel in Ukraine. It specializes in the production of long products, particularly rebar and wire rod.
As previously reported, in 2022, the plant reduced the output of rolled steel by 77% compared with the previous year – up to 1.1 million tons, steel – by 76.3% to 1.2 million tons, iron – by 71% to 1.6 million tons.
Iron ore production fell last year by 56%, to 11.6 million tons, and concentrate production fell by 57.2%, to 4.2 million tons.
Concrete market in 2022 fell in 5 times, reinforced concrete – three times, the general director of Kovalskaya PSG Sergei Pilipenko said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“The concrete market has fallen almost five times, reinforced concrete – three times. A lot of production space has been lost due to military operations. Many of the (existing) producers may not survive the year,” – said Pilipenko.
At the same time the CEO of the group noted that the construction of new housing showed the lowest dynamics, and 2022 market lived mainly at the expense of commercial construction and infrastructure
Kovalska Construction Group has been working on the construction market of Ukraine since 1956. It unites more than 20 enterprises in the sphere of extraction of raw materials, production and construction. The production is presented by brands “Concrete from Kowalska”, “Avenue”, Siltek and others. The enterprises of Kowalska operate in Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Lviv, Kherson and Chernihiv regions.
In addition, the group includes Kovalska Real Estate, which is engaged in construction of residential buildings in Kiev. Its portfolio includes 20 completed residential projects.
The electricity deficit has slightly decreased due to increased production, but remains at a significant level and is still insufficient to cover consumption in full, NEC Ukrenergo said.
“After repairs, two units at thermal power plants returned to the grid. At the same time, one unit was taken out for emergency repairs. Also during almost all day there is the import of electricity from other countries,” described the situation “Ukrenergo” in its daily update in the Telegram channel.
At the same time, according to the system operator, power consumption is gradually increasing due to the intensification of frost, with a more rapid increase expected tomorrow with the beginning of the working week.
The company confirmed the information previously promulgated by the network operators on the introduction of limits of consumption in the regions only for the period from 16:00 to 20:00.
The exceptions are the Kyiv and Odesa regions, where there are network restrictions.
In particular, emergency shutdowns continue in Odessa and nearby areas due to a large-scale accident at one of the substations of Ukrenergo.
The company assured that together with the Odessa regional military administration and the regional energy company its specialists are developing reserve schemes of connecting Odessa and nearby areas, and repair teams of Ukrenergo and the regional energy company are working around the clock to eliminate the consequences of the accident and the quickest resumption of power supply.
As reported, since Sunday morning, in order to avoid accidents due to equipment overload, stabilization shutdowns have been introduced in Goloseevskyi, Solomenskyi and Pecherskyi districts, as well as on the Left Bank of the capital. In the Kiev region, restrictions will be applied in Kiev-Svyatoshinsky district. Due to the accident, there is also temporarily no light in Fastivsky and Vasylkivsky districts of Kyiv region.
On Friday evening and then on Saturday morning a large-scale accident occurred at one of the substations of Ukrenergo, as a result of which Odessa and the Odessa region were out of electricity. According to data as of the evening announced by Herman Galushchenko, head of the Ministry of Energy, one third of consumers were connected to the grid.
