Ships loaded with South African coal hosted by Illichivsk seaport / Photo from UNIAN
The first batch of South African coal under contracts signed by Ukrainian thermal power plants will arrive in in late September, according to Ukraine’s Energy Minister.
"There are agreements reached by different actors, so now I cannot say [about the exact volume of coal supplies]. I know of a supply of 160,000 tons. Other supplies are also scheduled. These will be big ships, 80,000 tons or 160,000 tons each, that will come on a regular basis," Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Volodymyr Demchyshyn said following a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
As UNIAN reported earlier, at the beginning of July 2015 Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk instructed the Ministry of Energy to immediately begin signing contracts on imports of scarce anthracite coal, the necessary supplies of which could be secured from Russia, South Africa and the occupied area of Donbas.
UNIAN memo. Ukraine began to experience an acute shortage of thermal coal in the summer of 2014, when as a result of military operations, it completely lost control over part of Donbas, where the majority of the mines are located.
About 50% of Ukraine-produced electricity is generated by nuclear power plants, the rest is produced by thermal power plants burning natural gas and coal, as well as by hydroelectric power plants and "green" energy.
In 2014, Ukraine has imported coal and anthracite worth $1.773 billion.