China to assist Ukraine with $3.6 billion for energy projects
Feb. 26, 2015, 4:41 p.m.
Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn announced a $3.6 billion Chinese loan for Ukraine's energy sector.
© Volodymyr Petrov
China is ready to lend Ukraine $3.6 billion for various projects in its energy sector that will reduce the country's dependence on the Russian gas, Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said on Feb. 23.
However, there was no immediate confirmation from the China side or any details about the loan.
"Our delegation just arrived from China where we met with representatives of the Ministry of Commerce and the China Development Bank," Demchyshyn said, according to Zerkalo Nedeli newspaper, which broke the story on its website. "The representative of each organization affirmed the readiness to provide a loan for our projects."
Ihor Didenko, Ukraine’s deputy minister of energy, said that the China Development Bank and Ukraine’s Naftogaz signed a $3.6 billion credit line contract. Didenko said that the portfolio includes such projects as coal gasification in Odessa’s Port Plant, nine thermal power stations, the Poland-Ukraine gas pipe interconnector, environmentally friendly equipment and upgrades in Ukrgazvydobuvannya, an oil and gas company.
“Even all of the projects did not come up to $3.6 billion… We calculated it is roughly around $2.5 billion,” Didenko told the Kyiv Post.
Additional projects to fill in the remaining $1 billion are still on the table for consideration.
“We now need to start the real processes with the Chinese. And the quickest one could be drilling equipment,” explained Didenko.
Whether China’s assistance will make Ukraine to be more independent from Russia depends on what the money will be used for, experts say.
Yuriy Korolchuk, an energy expert, said that two years ago China was ready to provide a loan for building the coal gasification plant and is still willing to do so. Gasification of coal is one of the alternatives to buying the blue fuel from Russia, whose aggression brought war to Ukraine's coal-rich Donbas region.
However, Dragon Capital's energy analyst Denys Sakva said that given Russia's war against eastern Ukraine, the region from which most of Ukraine's coal is extracted, there's little sense in importing coal to run such plants. "We will have to import significant volumes of coal from Russia and so no energy supply diversification will be achieved."
Last year, Ukraine consumed 42 billion cubic meters of gas, while only a half of it was produced domestically and 14.5 billion cubic meters purchased from Russia's Gazprom, two times down year-on-year.
Now, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk takes pride that Ukraine buys more gas from the European Union, through a reverse flow, than from Russia.
Coal-based electricity producers used to cover 48 percent of the nation's needs in electric power, while the nuclear plants covered 46 percent.
Since the war in the Donbas started, Ukraine can't get the coal from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts – it is still being produced, but the railways for deliveries are ruined. Obviously, the separatists are not a reliable partner for any business deals, though they've been saying they can supply coal to the Ukrainian power plants.
Now, Ukraine has to import coal from abroad, while it also considers an option of importing the electricity. Previously, it used to export both, coal and electric power.