Coal news and updates

Ukraine coal reserves at thermal power plants up to 1.367 million mt

Reserves at Ukraine's coal-burning power plants totaled 1.367 million mt Tuesday, up 8.2% over the past eight days, power grid operator UkrEnergo said.

The data is released weekly, but government offices were closed Monday for a holiday.

Ukraine plans to have up to 2.5-3 million mt of coal in warehouses at power plants by October 15.

Before the armed conflict in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Ukraine used to store about 4.5 million mt of coal for the beginning of the high-demand season. The conflict has hit coal extraction and consumption.

The government is seeking to start imports of coal, mostly anthracite, from elsewhere as all domestic anthracite-producing mines are in territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk.

Deputy Prime Minister Valeriy Voshchevskiy said at least 5.5 million mt of anthracite was produced but is currently stored in separatist-controlled territory, adding the government was trying to get access to the coal.

Anthracite, a high calorific coal, is widely used in Ukrainian power plants. It cannot be easily replaced with other types of coal, forcing Ukraine to begin imports.

Reserves of anthracite coal rose to 461,880 mt as of June 30, compared with 400,080 mt on June 22, UkrEnergo said. Ukraine plans to store at least 1 million mt of anthracite by October 15.

Meanwhile, stocks of fuel oil at power plants rose to 25,340 mt as of June 30, from 23,510 mt previously.

UkrEnergo regularly reports on fuel oil stocks with coal stocks because some Ukrainian power plants use fuel oil to initiate the burning of coal. Fuel oil is also used by power plants as a reserve fuel for power generation.

As of Monday, Ukrainian coal-burning power plants were working with total capacity of 4,630 MW, down from 5,090 MW as of June 21, while nuclear power plants ran with capacity of 9,593 MW compared with 9,454 MW June 21.

source: http://www.platts.com