Ukraine’s fuel crisis has become more severe in the past month, with news reports showing the full extent of the trouble at hand.
Ukraine had started to show some signs of strain due to problems with their increased coal shortages and the situation soon got out of hand. Power generation has been at an all time low. During the recent months, Ukraine was even forced to cut off power supplies to Crimea on two occasions, last Wednesday and Friday in the run-up to Christmas.
As a direct result of the conflict, annual coal production has now dropped by around 19%. If local news agencies are to be believed, coal shortages are predicted to reach somewhere between 10-12 million tonnes by April in 2015.
A deal was launched to buy South African coal, but this soon collapsed. A Ukrainian state energy firm has come under suspicion of embezzlement linked to this.
Ukraine coal mining was disrupted by the absence of Russian gas imports and has faced mass electricity cuts around the country since June. That could be the reason why their government subsequently turned to South Africa to boost supplies in the first place.
A Director of the large energy company Ukrinterenergo was investigated. This came following suspected involvement in the South African deal.
Ukraine has been hit hard recently; it was once a country that was self-sufficient in electricity. Unfortunately, since joining pro-Russian uprising, coal supplies have diminished to thermal power plants. These once generated approximately 40 percent of the power.
The Ukraine energy minister, Volodymyr Demchyshyn, announced himself in process of holding talks with Russia. This was regarding their coal supplies and power. Although, he has elected not to reveal whether the transportation hold-ups at the border have now been resolved. This may be a situation that continues as time goes by.
Russia have today agreed to supply coal to Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin has announced his plans to supply 500,000 tonnes of coal to Ukraine on a potentially ongoing basis. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak then also went on to reveal that more may be supplied if an additional agreement is reached. This gives new hope to all involved and may mean a way to move forward.
So it looks as though the situation is all coming together now after a long, hard few weeks. Will this be the end of Ukraine’s troubles though? Perhaps it is time to look to different sources.
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As responsible countries, we must also begin thinking about our own energy efficient environments and our energy sources or supplies.
There may be ways that we can work together to help our environments. By considering alternative routes and measures, we could potentially benefit in the long run.
There is sure to be much more to come in the development of this story over the coming weeks.