Demchishin to ban exporting coal to Russia

In early March, the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry published a draft procedure to obtain licenses for the export of anthracite. This was done, as the Office of Vladimir Demchishin reported, to pursue to the decision of the Cabinet №1 "On Approval of the list of goods, exports and imports of which are subject to licensing and quotas, in 2015" dated January 14 this year, which included the most scarce type of steam coal in the "license" list. The procedure ,developed by subordinates of Demchishin, concerns exporters of all types of ownership. "The approval of the issuance of licenses for the export of anthracite will allow us to determine the list of documents and simplify the procedure of approval or non-approval for a specified license," - the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry stated. However, the study of the document, prepared by officials, suggests that the most likely will be the second option.

The idea to introduce licensing of anthracite exports came to mind of curators of the coal industry after the seizure of the Donbass territories, where more than half the coal in the Ukraine was traditionally mined. A paradoxical situation develops in the country. Due to the termination of its supplies to the territory, controlled by the Ukrainian authorities, an acute shortage of thermal coal occurred, which the officials tried to replenish with supplies from abroad. Meanwhile, exports of anthracite, using which a half of Ukrainian thermal power stations, didn’t stop. So, in the first half of 2014, 3.28 million tons for $248 million were delivered to foreign markets, and in the second half of the year - about 1 million tons for $67 million. At the same time, almost half of the export over the past year fell on the EU ( Bulgaria, Spain, Poland and others) and more than 10% was supplied to Russia, which the Ukraine recognized an aggressor country.