Page 57 - UKRRptMay19

the Baltic Sea and TurkStream through the Black Sea. With these new lines, Russia says it will not need Ukraine’s pipelines.
Ukraine cut gas imports for domestic use by 15% during the first quarter,
compared to the same period last year. Tilting toward Poland, which imports liquefied natural gas from the US, Ukraine increased Polish imports by one quarter. Imports from Slovakia dropped 24% and imports from Hungary dropped by 9%. Most gas from Slovakia and Hungary originally comes from Russia. Ukraine stopped direct gas purchases from Russia in Nov. 2015. Due to conservation and substitution of fuels, Ukraine cuts gas imports last year by one quarter, to 10.6bn cubic meters.
In the latest move to bring non-Russian gas to Poland and, potentially Ukraine, the European Commission signed on April 15 a €215mn grant to start building a pipeline to bring Norwegian North Sea gas to Denmark and a Polish Baltic sea port. Designed for completion by 2022, the line would supply 10bn cubic meters of gas to Poland. By comparison, the Russia-German Nord Stream 2 pipeline is scheduled to open next year with an annual capacity of 55bcm. Last year, Russia supplied almost half of gas consumed in the EU, followed by followed by Norway -34%- and Algeria and Libya, each 8.6%.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed an order imposing new sanctions against Ukraine, which include restrictions on the export of crude oil and oil products to the country, Vedomosti reported on April 19. According to the order, Russia is to stop the export of crude oil to Ukraine, while exports of oil products are to require the approval of the Ministry for Economic Development from 1 June, according to the paper. Kommersant reports that Rosneft and Lukoil are the key oil product suppliers to Ukraine. Russian oil companies supplied some 2.5mmt of diesel and 0.4mmt of naphtha last year to Ukraine, while no crude volumes were supplied. “The banning the export of crude oil and oil products to Ukraine might have a slight negative effect on the logistics, and potentially on the margins, of these supplies as Ukraine could well purchase these products from adjacent countries. However, the effect on Russian oil companies is likely to be negligible,” VTB Capital (VTBC) said in a note.
9.1.2 Automotive sector news
Production of vehicles in Ukraine decreased by 15.6% year-on-year to 1,741 units in January-March, according to preliminary data collected by the Ukrautoprom production association. The output of passenger cars declined by 14.7% y/y to 1,508 (all at the Eurocar plant) in January-March. The main decline in production was recorded in commercial vehicles production (excluding products of AvtoKrAZ) - a 85.3% y/y decline (14 units). A positive trend was recorded only in bus output: a rise of 9% y/y to 219 units in the first quarter of 2019.
57 UKRAINE Country Report May 2019 www.intellinews.com