Page 57 - UKRRptDec18

9.0 Industry & Sectors 9.1 Sector news
9.1.1 Oil & gas sector news
UkrGazVydobuvannia, responsible for 75% of the nation’s gas output,
plans to build next year a $3mn, 3 MW solar power plant at its Shebelynka gas refinery, 80 km south of Kharkiv. UGV is under pressure to produce more gas. It is not known if the solar plant will power the gas refinery, freeing up gas to help UGV meet its production targets.
Shipment of Russian gas through Ukraine to the EU is dipping below 50% the pipeline’s capacity, according to January to October figures from Ukrtransgaz. So far this year, gas transmission is down 7% year over year, to 72bn cubic meters. At this rate, the pipelines will carry 86.4bn, or 48.5% of the system’s annual export capacity of 178bn cubic meters. Gazprom has not made any guarantees on transit volumes after the current contract expires at the end of next year. In recent years, Ukraine has earned $3bn in gas transit revenues.
Ukraine reduced import of natural gas by a fifth (22.8%) in January-November 2018 as it goes into its third year without importing any Russian gas, according to data from JSC Ukrtransgaz released on December 4. Ukraine’s gas imports were down by 2.983bn cubic meters in the period, compared to the same period in 2017, to 10.113bn cubic meters. According to Interfax-Ukraine calculations, imports from the Slovak republic amounted to 6.232bn cubic meters (32.6% less compared to January-November 2017), Hungary some 3.224bn cubic meters (19.3% more), and from Poland some 657.1mn cubic meters (43% less). In November 2018, imports amounted to 971.2mn cubic meters of gas, which is 26.2% less than in November 2017.
The average daily production of natural gas in Ukraine was 58.76mn cubic meters per day in November 2018 , up 0.4% (220,000 cubic meters per day) compared with October 2018. The average daily production rate has been growing for the seventh month in a row. The average daily production increased by 1.1% (630,000 cubic meters per day) compared with November 2017, Ukrinform.com informs. The total production continues to grow owing to the indicators of the state-owned company Ukrgazvydobuvannya, while private companies show a decline. In November, the average daily production of the Ukrgazvydobuvannya was 43.74mn cubic meters per day, up 0.8% (35,000 cubic meters per day) compared with October of this year. The average daily gas production by the state-owned company has been growing for the fourth month in a row.
Ukraine’s state-owned gas monopolist Naftogaz has not bought any natural gas from Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom for three years, counting from November 26, 2015. For the 2015-2017 winter periods, Ukraine did not purchase gas from Russia and instead imported gas from Russian clients in Europe, such as Slovakia and Poland, by reverse flows and with a mark-up in price. In 2017, Ukraine increased imports of gas by 26.8%, or 2.972bn cubic metres (cm), to 14.05bn cm. Imports from Slovakia amounted to
57 UKRAINE Country Report December 2018 www.intellinews.com