Ukrainian Energy Minister, German Galushchenko, urged major international energy companies to devote part of their profits to the restoration of Ukrainian energy infrastructure. In an interview with Politico, he said that these companies increased their profits due to price increases during the military conflict in Ukraine.
“Many energy companies are making huge unexpected profits because of the war. “We estimate that this is more than $200 billion, they get this money because of the war, because we are at war,” he said.
According to him, “it would be fair to share this money with Ukraine” to help the country rebuild its energy infrastructure.
Politico explains that the $200 billion figure stated by the Minister of Energy is the profits of the five largest energy companies for 2022. We’re talking about British Shell and BP, American Chevron and ExxonMobil, and French Total. In February, CNN reported that these companies had a record 2022 profit of $199.3 billion.
Galushchenko urged them to follow the example of Lithuanian Ignitis Group, which previously announced its intention to use about 10% of its profits to help renovate Ukraine’s infrastructure.
The minister also called for “closing the gaps” to avoid circumventing international sanctions on energy carriers from Russia. According to him, this would prevent an “endless war”. Galushchenko said that as an alternative, Kiev could export nuclear fuel, thereby overcoming European countries’ dependence on Moscow for energy.
money for recovery
The Russian army has been carrying out missile attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities since October 10. As a result, numerous power plants, gas production plants and substations that connect Ukraine’s energy system into a single whole were damaged. In some areas, residents’ heat and electricity supply is still unstable, and repairs are underway at the facilities.
In November, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it would take more than $1 trillion to rebuild the country, including its energy infrastructure, after the end of hostilities.
According to analysts from the UN, the European Commission, the World Bank and the Ukrainian government, the country will need $14 billion in 2023 alone to restore critical infrastructure and support the public and private sectors. They also believe that Only 383 billion Euros ($411 billion) will be needed to rebuild Ukraine after the end of the conflictbut it says “the amount is constantly increasing” report 23 March United Nations.
“Energy infrastructure, housing, critical infrastructure, economy and humanitarian demining are priorities this year,” said Denys Shmyhal, Prime Minister of Ukraine.
In February, the company “Ukrenergo” described the state of Ukraine’s energy system as “shaky”. “What we’ve accomplished right now (a few non-stop days) doesn’t mean we’ve finally won this energy battle,” said company president Vladimir Kudritsky.
According to him, the direct damage to the Ukrainian energy system is estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars, and the economic losses of the country are in the billions. “Almost all major thermal and hydroelectric power stations, as well as many main substations, were bombed,” said the chairman of the board of directors of Ukrenergo.
On December 22, the head of the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine announced that it will be possible to fully restore the country’s energy system only by the summer of 2023. He stressed that this would be possible in the absence of new shelling.