Ukraine will soon begin importing coal because of the lack of coal in thermal power plants due to the ongoing the military operation in the Donetsk Region. Ukraine is expected to begin importing coal in the very near future. Fuel will come from New Zealand, Australia and possibly the United States. According to Interfax, the country's ministry of energy has been working on the issue for about two months. Current reserves of coal at Ukraine's power stations are enough to secure their operation for 11-50 days.
According to Ukrainian media, local power plants have used almost all of the coal. Due to the disruption in rail transport in the Donetsk Region, deliveries of solid fuels have practically ceased. According to the news agency "Kharkiv" the authorities in Kiev hope to survive the winter without Russian gas. Ukraine has already introduced very strict austerity measures. However, in the very near future Ukraine will face an energy problem, which is not related to the lack of gas. Whether in this case the Ukrainians will survive the winter or not is unknown. The authorities have decided to replace gas with coal, but it turned out that the amount of coal is not sufficient. And if the conflict in Eastern Ukraine is not resolved in the very near future, soon there will be no fuel for power plants.
How will this situation affect the Russian coal industry?
The chairman of the Russian Independent Trade Union of Coal Industry Workers, Ivan Mohnachuk, noted that the events in Ukraine could affect Russian companies in terms of coal supplies to Ukraine, which last year imported about 11 million tons of coal, about 6 million of which were thermal coal, worth about $2 billion. "If Ukraine cannot afford to pay for gas, and gas supplies to Ukraine are subsequently banned, I doubt that they will have the money to pay for the imported coal," the expert said. Mohnachuk also noted the likelihood of increasing coal supplies to the East, stressing that "in addition to Ukraine, we also export a lot of coal to European countries, indluding England and others." The expert concluded that the Ukrainian situation is unlikely to "have a major impact on the development programme of the Russian coal industry until 2030."
The director general of the Institute of Coal Market Research, Professor Alexander Kovalchuk, said that Russian coal companies are trying to deliver up to 60% of the total amount of produced coal to the Pacific region. "As for Ukraine, first of all, here the amount of exports is not so noticeable, even less than 10% of the total amount, mainly coking coal," he said. According to him, the eastern route depends greatly on transport, while in the West there are no such tight restrictions. "If necessary, we are able to increase coal supplies to Ukraine," Kovalchuk said.
