Kiev edition: the initiator of Ukraine’s purchase of coal from the United States was Trump, not Poroshenko
RBC-Ukraine publication released sensational information regarding US interest in the Ukrainian coal deal, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
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Let us remind you that the Ukrainian government recently announced that it had found a way to solve the problem of thermal coal shortage for state-owned thermal power plants. It is planned to cover its shortage until 2019 with supplies of anthracite from the USA in the amount of 2,5-3 million tons. After this, the Ukrainian energy sector, as planned by officials, will completely switch to using gas grades of coal. The first ships with American coal will arrive in Ukraine in September. By the end of the year, supplies of 700 thousand tons are planned. The first batch of American anthracite will cost Ukraine $113 per ton, and the price for the rest of the volume may vary.
The publication notes that American coal will cost the country at least 10-15 dollars more than the cost of coal, which is included in the electricity tariff for thermal power plants. In addition, Ukraine could import the same volume from South Africa by paying $30 cheaper for each ton of anthracite, adds the author of the article, deputy editor of the publication Maria Tsaturyan.
According to the publication, the initiator of the deal was not Petro Poroshenko, but Donald Trump himself.
“Several RBC-Ukraine sources familiar with the progress of the negotiations told the publication that the issue of coal supplies was initiated by Trump. “It is very important for the American leader to fulfill his election promises regarding the revival of the coal industry in the States. In March, he signed a corresponding decree, and is now trying to find stable sales markets. It was Trump who raised this topic during a conversation with Poroshenko,” a source familiar with the situation from the inside assured RBC-Ukraine.
“American partners do not hide their interest in coal supplies to Ukraine. “Ukraine has asked us for millions, millions of tons of coal right now. There are many other places where it (coal) is also needed, and we will sell it to everyone in the world,” US President Donald Trump said after a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko, which took place at the end of June,” the author quotes RBC-Ukraine words of the American leader.
The publication connects Trump’s keen interest in the Ukrainian topic with the moratorium on the development of new coal deposits, which was introduced by his predecessor Barack Obama, that he lifted on March 28. This document provides for a revision of the Obama administration's Clean Energy Plan, which was supposed to significantly reduce the use of coal in electricity generation. Even during the election campaign, Trump stated that as a result of the implementation of this plan, the US coal industry was “on the brink of survival”, and “hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their jobs.”
“If four years ago the United States exported more than 50 million tons of thermal coal, then by 2016 this figure did not exceed 20 million tons,” notes the official website of the American government agency Energy Information Administration (EIA).
“Ukrainian officials refused to comment on the official political component of the deal to import coal from the United States. But on the basis of anonymity, the Cabinet of Ministers does not hide the fact that Ukraine is ready to “help” its American partners establish a fuel sales market. “Trump needs quick and demonstrative results, in the energy sector in particular. American partners discussed with the Ukrainian delegation the volume of supplies that could cover the country’s annual need for the anthracite group (the annual needs of the Ukrainian energy sector are about 9,5 million tons of anthracite coal). Mining in the Pennsylvania Basin is primarily by open-pit mining. Therefore, launching production is not so difficult. But our delegation was not ready for this conversation, since American coal is expensive and high-calorie,” a source in the Cabinet of Ministers explained to RBC-Ukraine.
In Ukraine itself, the energy situation remains difficult. According to the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry, reserves of anthracite coal in the warehouses of heat generating enterprises, as of August 2, amount to 724 thousand tons, which is 27% less than the volumes planned for this period. Prydneprovskaya (DTEK), Zmievskaya and Trypilska TPPs (Centrenergo) were stopped due to lack of fuel, and Lugansk, Krivorozhskaya and Slavyanskaya TPPs have reserves that are enough for an average of 1,5 months of operation.
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