Page 10 - FSUOGM Week 08 2023

FSUOGM POLICY FSUOGM

Naftogaz suffers $1bn in damage

from Russian aggression

UKRAINE NAFTOGAZ of Ukraine’s losses from Russian to cause significant damage to energy facilities,
shelling during the war amount to more than and the country would have enough transform-
Most of the destruction $1bn. Most of the destruction took place in the ers to survive any possible future attacks.
took place in the Kharkiv region, said the company's head, Olek- As of February 2, Ukraine’s power system
Kharkiv region. siy Chernyshov. One of the biggest losses was the generating capacity is sufficient to cover about
destruction of the Shebelinsky Refinery, where 80% of consumers' electricity needs, according
the tank farm was destroyed. to Ukrenergo. The loss of generation capacity in
However, despite all the negative impacts the aftermath of the Russian missile attacks and
from the war, the company managed to step emergency repairs to two blocks of power plants
up production in the fourth quarter of 2022 by was compensated by the return to operation of
increasing capacities in the western regions. one of the blocks and the increase in electricity
Ukraine has set an ambitious target of production by hydroelectric plants (HPPs).
increasing its natural gas production to nearly Ukrenergo also reported that at two substa-
19bn cubic metres by 2023, according to Oleksiy tions in the eastern and central regions of the
Chernyshov, the head of the board of Naftogaz. country, the repair of transformer equipment
He stated that Ukrgazvydobuvannia plans to damaged by rocket attacks in the autumn has
produce an additional 1 bcm this year, and he been completed. Preparations for inclusion into
expects private companies to increase their vol- operations are currently underway.
umes as well. According to Volodymyr Kudrytsky, the head
Unofficial data show that Ukraine's gross of Ukrenergo, the enemy has largely lost the
natural gas production was approximately 18.5 ability to inflict significant damage on Ukraine's
bcm in 2022, which is 6.6% less than the previ- energy infrastructure. In an interview with
ous year. Ukrgazvydobuvannia reported that it Bloomberg, Kudrytsky attributed the increased
had produced 12.5 bcm of commercial gas in the effectiveness of Ukrainian air defence and the
same period. speed of repairing disabled equipment as the
Chernyshov assured that Ukraine would be reasons for this improvement.
able to meet its heating needs for the current sea- He also revealed that Ukrainian repair teams
son through its current production, gas reserves are now replacing damaged transformers four
in underground storage facilities and additional times faster than in the autumn, and that the
imports. He credited the assistance of the G7 degradation of the energy system has stopped.
countries and the Government of Norway in "We repair [equipment] at the same speed that
securing funds for procurement. they destroy, sometimes faster," Kudrytsky said.
He said, "I can confidently say that it is However, power outages are likely to con-
enough. Additionally, the Naftogaz team is tinue in the spring and summer of 2023, Kudryt-
already working on a strategic plan for the sky added. "If the shelling stops and the repair
2023/2024 heating season,” he told NV in an of damaged facilities continues uninterruptedly,
interview. we will be able to go out for a long period with-
State company Ukrgazvydobuvannya, a sub- out shutdowns. But you can't be sure of that."
sidiary of Naftogaz, produced 12.5 bcm of nat- Kudrytsky estimated that direct damage from
ural gas. This year, Naftogaz plans to extract an shelling amounted to hundreds of millions of
additional 1 bcm. dollars, with indirect economic damage reach-
Despite the losses in 2022, Naftogaz plans ing billions.
to extract almost 19 bcm of Ukrainian gas and Since September 2022, Russia has carried out
become profitable, noted Chernyshov. 15 massive rocket attacks on energy facilities in
Ukraine, firing up to 100 missiles at Ukrainian
Energy situation improves thermal power plants (TPPs) and transformer
The energy situation in Ukraine is improving stations during each shelling. As a result, more
thanks to the help from improved air defence than 40% of Ukraine's energy system was dam-
capabilities, the government says. Ukraine aged. In the last three months of 2022, electricity
is fixing energy utilities faster than Russian in the homes of 73% of Ukrainians was turned
can bomb them. Russian rocket attacks on off more than once a day, while another 14%
Ukraine's energy infrastructure have not yield- experienced daily power outages. The duration
ed significant military or political results, but of outages most often ranged from 5 to 9 hours
they have caused material losses estimated in (33.5% of respondents), from 2 to 4 hours (26%),
the billions of dollars. and from 10 to 14 hours (16.7%). Only 1% of
The Ukrainian government recently Ukrainians did not experience any power out-
announced that shelling would no longer be able ages. ™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 08 22•February•2023