The Vostsibugol company sent a letter to the Prosecutor General’s Office with a request to audit the officials of the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Economic Development and Industry of the Irkutsk Region, responsible for determining quotas for coal exports. Vedomosti newspaper reports this.
The company believes that the distribution of restrictions on coal exports from the Irkutsk region to the east is unfair. As Vedomosti explained, a copy of the letter was also sent to FAS.
From the letter of Vostsibugol general director Evgeniy Masternak, read by the publication, it becomes clear that coal exports from the region took place in 2016-2022. increased, but the company’s share in total supply is decreasing every year.
The letter also clarifies this situation in 2016-2022. The volume of coal exports from the Irkutsk region increased by 2.3 times to 3.28 million tons, and Vostsibugol’s quota increased by only 3.8%, from 943,700 to 979,800 tons. Also, Vostsibugol falls on the open-pit mine belonging to Cheremkhovougol. Moreover, while Vostsibugol’s share in coal export shipments from the region decreased from 66.6% to 29.8%, the real growth in foreign supply was at the expense of small private companies.
The letter also states that the company contacted the government of the Irkutsk region, the Russian Ministry of Energy and Russian Railways several times with a request to increase export quotas to 2-2.4 million tons per year in 2023, but did not receive support.
Masternak believes that the system of the Ministry of Energy of the Irkutsk Region to distribute quotas for coal exports among enterprises in the region is “transparent and unfair.” According to him, the distribution should take into account the company’s share in the total fuel production and shipment volume in the region, its social obligations and investment activities, and its contribution to the development of the Angara region.
“They did not initially explain why our quota was halved (from 67 percent to 30 percent). “The Ministry of Energy then showed a formula that we consider to be incorrect, which takes into account neither the total volume of coal produced by a particular company nor the volume of low-margin supply to the domestic market.”
Masternak explained that in 2023 alone, Vostsibugol’s losses from non-fulfillment of the export shipment plan are estimated at several billion rubles.
At the same time, the president of Vostsibugol emphasized that coal exports allow the company to fulfill all its obligations to its employees. “Decreasing export earnings reduces the possibility of social support in the region,” he said.
Earlier it became known that workers of the coal enterprise Razrez Cheremkhovugol in the single-industrial city of Cheremkhovo were planning to directly contact Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to them, the life and prosperity of not only the enterprise but also the entire city depends on export volume.