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From April 1, 2011, Power Trade Ltd. (Kyiv), belonging to the largest Ukrainian private energy company DTEK, started commercial sales of electricity to Moldova, DTEK’s press service reports. According to Power Trade’s director Andrii Favorov, the estimated monthly volume of exports to Moldova will range from 75 to 100 million kWh, with generation capacity of up to 150 MW. “By the end of this year, DTEK plans to cover 30-50 percent of Moldova’s electricity needs with Ukrainian electricity, thanks to the favorable pricing environment. The commercial supply of electricity from Ukraine will help ensure the stability of parallel operation of Ukraine’s and Moldova’s generation systems,” Favorov is quoted as saying. Since July 2010, Power Trade, under contract with Energocom, balances the final monthly overflows between Ukraine’s and Moldova’s generation systems. Ukraine, represented by the state enterprise Ukrinterenerho, stopped commercial exports of electricity to Moldova on January 1, 2009, after Energocom began to substitute Ukrainian electricity, which it had earlier imported, with electricity produced by JSC Moldova Regional Power Station (Transnistria). In 2008, Moldova accounted for more than one third (2.988 billion kWh) of all Ukrainian electricity exports (7.868 billion kWh). 

JSC Naftogaz Ukrainy has chosen the consulting firm McKinsey & Company as its consultant on procedures aimed at selecting the leading manager for its planned initial public offering, Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Yurii Boiko said on the program Grand Politics on the TV channel Inter. According to the minister, Naftohaz Ukrainy expects to raise at least five to six billion dollars from the sale of 25 percent of the company’s shares. “And this is under the most pessimistic projections,” he said, noting that an estimate of the state holding company’s assets’ value at 10 to 12 billion dollars (it had been voiced during the program) was clearly too low. “Naftohaz Ukrainy is worth much more. The business of Russian gas transit through our territory alone brings in about three billion dollars a year to the nation,” Boiko stressed. The energy minister added that the sale of up to 25 percent of Naftohaz Ukrainy’s shares on the stock market should take place in mid-2012. “The project is very ambitious, I do not think we will finish it this year, but it can realistically be done by the middle of next year,” he said.

The minister also ruled out the speculation that after the listing the company’s shares will be bought out by the Russian Gazprom. “It’s impossible... I am convinced that such a large-scale operation, which will be advised by the World Bank or the prominent International Monetary Fund, or other similar organizations, will be completely open and transparent,” Boiko stressed. He also denied reports of Naftohaz Ukrainy’s poor financial condition, noting that the company’s loan portfolio is worth about 30 percent of its turnover, in line with leading European oil and gas companies Gaz de France Suez (France) and Eni (Italy). There were reports, citing the company’s chief executive officer Yevhen Bakulin, about Naftohaz Ukrainy planning to go public in 2012-13. The money raised will go to the company’s development, increasing gas production, and gas transportation system modernization.