Sergey Kondratiev, Deputy Head of the Economic Department of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to Gazeta.Ru whether the Ukrainians will be waiting for rolling blackouts as a result of the possible nationalization of the energy sector.
The Ministry of Energy of Ukraine has developed a bill on introducing temporary administrations at private energy enterprises in case of the electricity supply disruption. The Cabinet of Ministers of Denis Shmygal plans to submit the document to the Verkhovna Rada for consideration in the near future. Thanks to this measure, the country's authorities will actually nationalize the energy sector.
Will Ukraine lose confidence from the IMF
According to Sergey Kondratiev, a senior expert at the Institute for Energy and Finance, by its actions Kiev risks being left alone with outstanding obligations to foreign creditors. The debt to Russia alone is now more than $ 4 billion.
For Ukraine, according to the expert, the flight of foreign investors from the country will become much more dangerous. In this case, the total losses of the Kiev treasury may amount to more than $ 100 million.“There are risks of losing IMF assistance, but so far they are not so great. The Ukrainian authorities like to emphasize that nationalization is temporary in nature with the further sale of assets to private hands at market prices. This happened with Kolomoisky's Privatbank, which the state took by itself, and now it is again talking about selling it," Kondratiev explained.
Will Kiev remain without light
According to Kondratyev, the company only at the very last moment became concerned about foreign purchases of coal, pushing the state to receive electricity from much more expensive gas.
The cost of energy from gas can be 8-9 hryvnia per kW * hour. For comparison, the current price on the wholesale market is approximately 3 hryvnia. In this situation, Ukrainians will face a multiple increase in tariffs at the height of the heating season.
“If incompetent temporary workers come to DTEK Energy, the budget of Ukraine will not withstand such a serious burden. In this situation, the Ukrainians will be waiting for rolling blackouts, and Kiev will actually be left without electricity. If local authorities start “to squeeze” out big business, it will inevitably strike a blow to corporate debt and Eurobonds," Kondratiev warned.
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