Stocks of scarce anthracite coal in warehouses of Ukrainian thermal power plants (TPPs) grew by 8.7% from October 9 to October 16, 2016 to 685,000 tonnes, according to state-run company Ukrenergo, the operator of Ukraine`s power grids.
Stocks of gas coal increased by 7.5% from 784,000 tonnes to 843,000 tonnes. In total, coal stocks in TPPs warehouses rose during the week by 8% to 1.528 mln tonnes. Stocks of reserve fuel, fuel oil, increased by 0.9% to 32,300 tonnes, according to the report.
As earlier reported by UNIAN, Ukraine began to experience an acute shortage of coal in the summer of 2014, when, as a result of hostilities, the government completely lost control of part of Donbas, where the majority of the coal mines were located.
In January 2015, Ukraine reduced coal production by half to 2.5 million tonnes, as compared to the previous year amid continued fighting in Donbas.
As a result, Kyiv-based authorities decided to begin importing coal from Australia, South Africa and Russia.
Currently, anthracite grade coal is extracted in the temporarily occupied territories in coal mines owned by Ukrainian businessman Rinat Akhmetov. However, coal supplies from the Anti-Terrorist Operation zone are often interrupted. Thus, there had been no supplies of anthracite coal since June 1, and they were resumed only in late July. However, the amount of coal supplied is not enough to replenish stocks in the warehouses, according to the report.
In late July, the Ukrainian government approved an action plan to prepare for the 2016-2017 heating season.
According to the plan, the country intends to accumulate 2.8 million tonnes of coal (1.4 million tonnes of anthracite coal and 1.4 million tonnes of coal of gas group) in the warehouses of thermal power plants (TPPs) by November 1, 2016.