<H1> Morning News </H1> |
<H2> Siberia Explosion Cuts Gazprom Gas Deliveries to Germany... Gas Prices Rise as Gazprom Draws On EU Stocks... River Cargo Up Almost 40%... Trucks Sell ‘Like Hotcakes’... Next Year: Fly Cherkasy-Sharm El-Sheikh? </H2> |
<H2> Today’s News </H2> |
<H2> Earlier News </H2> |
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by
James Brooke </H3> |
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A powerful explosion followed by a day-long fire at a Gazprom plant in Western Siberia cut Russian gas deliveries to Germany in half on Friday.
EU gas prices spiked. The explosion cut gas deliveries across Poland through the Yamal pipeline. Deliveries across Ukraine are expected to drop today. But deliveries through Nord Stream 1 to Germany continue unaffected. Gazprom seeks to have Nord Stream 2 Ukraine bypass pipeline commissioned this fall. </H3> |
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Due to “catastrophic” damage,
“production of gas, gas condensate and partly oil in the eastern part of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug is completely stopped,” a plant employee told Lenta.ru agency. The damaged plant is the largest gas processing enterprise in this northern region, source of 80% of Russia’s gas. </H3> |
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In 2019, the plant produced 100 billion cubic meters of gas, the equivalent of half of Gazprom’s annual gas exports to Europe.
Over the weekend, energy analysts struggled to gauge the impact of the fire. Prices in Amsterdam rose sharply, hitting $540 per thousand cubic meters. Over the last two weeks, EU gas prices have risen by 20%, hitting the highest levels in over 20 years. </H3> |
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The plant that blew up was built in the 1980s and was scheduled for replacement.
Instead of repairing the facility, Gazprom is expected to build a new one. Although the blast was felt 20 km away and the fire burned for 21 hours, no one was killed. </H3> |
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In July, Gazprom cut its pipeline deliveries to the EU by 10.3 billion cubic meters
due to scheduled shutdowns of the Nord Stream 1 and Yamal pipelines for planned maintenance. Rather than make up for this shortfall by sending more gas across Ukraine, Gazprom chose to draw down its German and Austrian underground storage reservoirs to dangerously low levels, says Serhiy Makogon, CEO of Ukraine’s Transmission System Operator. </H3> |
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“Gazprom is devastating its underground storage facilities in Europe,”
Makogon told Ukraine pipeline operator’s press service. He said Gazprom-owned reservoirs in Germany are only 13% full, compared to a national average of 63%. Similarly, in Austria, Gazprom’s reservoirs are 14% full, while the national average is 48%. Talking before the Western Siberian explosion was known, he asserted: “Gazprom is extracting gas from storage facilities to fulfill its contracts. Accordingly, the gas shortage in Europe’s underground storage facilities is largely artificial.” </H3> |
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River cargo on the Dnipro is up by 39% this year,
compared to the same January-July period last year, reports the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority. Boosted by this summer’s massive roadbuilding program, construction materials – sand and gravel – are running at double last year’s levels. With grains and metals down, construction cargo accounted for 71% of this year’s cargo. </H3> |
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Half of trucks are overloaded, highlighting the need to shift more cargo to river and rail,
Prime Minister Shmyhal said Friday on a visit to Cherkasy region. To protect newly repaved roads, the government has installed on highways 37 ‘Weigh-in-Motion’ monitoring units. Already connected to the Data Processing Center of Ukrtransbezpeky, the state highway safety agency, these units will start automatically sending out fines on Oct. 1. </H3> |
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Large truck sales are up 73% yoy, to 2,746,
reports AUTO-Consulting. The company tracked sales of trucks weighing over 3.5 tons from January to July, compared to the same period last year. “Road construction continues to be the market driver,” the analysts wrote. “Dump trucks are sold like ‘hotcakes.’” The top five brands are: MAZ of Belarus; MAN of Germany; Scania, Ford, and Volvo. </H3> |
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To promote the sales and service of electric cars, the EBRD is loaning €20 million to Winner,
Ukraine’s leading importer and retailer of electric cars. To be matched by Winner’s investment of €23 million, the money will go to building environmentally sound dealerships for Renault and Volvos, two brands that are fast adopting electric models. EBRD says its loan is matched by an EU guarantee. Ukraine currently has about 25,000 electric cars and 9,000 charging stations. </H3> |
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Fast InterCity trains will start running next year between Cherkasy and Kyiv, rendering rail travel as fast car travel on the 190-km route.
After electrification of a final 30-km section in a 145-year old rail line, high-speed trains will connect the regional capital with the national capital in 2h30 min, the same time as by car, Kirill Tymoshenko, deputy presidential chief of staff, wrote Friday on Facebook. </H3> |
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Cherkasy Airport, once one of the busiest in the Soviet Union, will reopen next year for charter and scheduled flights,
Prime Minister Shmyhal said after an inspection on Friday. Over the last three years, the runway and the terminal have been repaired. Serving a region of 1.2 million people, Cherkasy suffers from competition with Kyiv Boryspil, a 2-hour drive to the north. SkyUp is studying launching flights next year from Cherkasy to Egypt and Turkey. </H3> |
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Kyiv City Express, the project to renovate Kyiv’s dilapidated suburban commuter rail system,
is to launch its first trains this month, Tymoshenko wrote Friday on Facebook. UZ is negotiating with “world-renowned companies” to expand the renovation to Kharkiv and Dnipro, he said. The main characteristics of the new suburban service, he said, are: “fast, convenient, comfortable – and with respect for the passenger.” </H3> |
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Ukraine will hold 150 events nationwide to mark the nation’s 30th Independence Day on Aug. 24.
The Culture Ministry has posted an interactive map showing a calendar of events in each region. In Kyiv, one highlight will be a parade down Kreschatyk with 5,000 soldiers and 400 armored units. There will a flyover by 100 military aircraft, including Antonov’s An-225 Mriya, the world’s largest aircraft. To get events funded in time, organizers bypassed the ProZorro electronic tender system, an increasingly common practice, anti-corruption activists tell The Ukrainian Weekly. </H3> |
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Editor’s Note:
Russia never ceases to come up with amazing coincidences. In the early morning hours of Jan. 8, 2020, of the dozen commercial airliners that took off from Tehran International Airport, the only plane targeted by Russian-made Tor M-1 missiles was the flight to Kyiv by Ukrainian International Airlines. More recently, in the middle of Siberia’s far northern Yamal Okrug, a 40-year-old gas condensate plant blew up Thursday, killing no one, but cutting gas deliveries to Germany in half. With the </H3> |
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Debt Billions Add Up… Reserves Hit $29 Billion… Belarus Closes Border - Again… Donors Develop Donbas… Vaccinators Race Delta
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Gazprom Keeps Cutting Gas to Europe… Natural Gas and Gasoline Prices Hit Record Highs… Car Imports Jump 40%... UIA Survives by Flying Charters…Ukrainians: Turkey’s Top Tourists
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IMF Gives Ukraine $2.7 Billion ‘Free’ Money… Vaccination Campaign Takes Off… Rail Cargo With Poland Jumps 22%... Migrant Workers: Nova Poshta Allies With Western Union… Belarus Nervous About IT Brain Drain to Ukraine
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