The President instructed the Prime Minister to establish an interagency working group on replacement of natural gas with coal of national production, according to the Press office of President Viktor Yanukovych.
Under the instruction, the working group must accelerate implementation of respective projects.
Reduction of national economy’s dependence on imported energy, introduction of new technologies in the sphere of coal mining, transition to innovative development in the use of energy resources is under constant control of the President. The Head of State believes that national coal industry is used inefficiently.
Particularly, usage of thermal coal with new technologies will provide an opportunity to replace expensive imported natural gas. The volume of such coal is sufficient to meet the needs of Ukraine for many years.
According to the Head of State, such step will be an additional stimulus for the increase of thermal coal mining and financial recovery of coal-mining enterprises. It will have a positive influence on socio-economic state of miners, steelworkers, power engineers, chemists and workers of other related industries.
Under the existing agreements, introduction of coal gasification technologies will provide an opportunity to save approximately 1.2 billion USD from replacement of 3 billion cubic meters of natural gas, create up to 15 thousand jobs and ensure stable market for domestic coal producers.
