Ukraine's DTEK Energy to launch 25 coal mine faces in 2024, same as in 2023

MOSCOW. Feb 9 (Interfax) - DTEK Energy, Ukraine's largest private power company, put two new coal mine faces into operation in January and plans to launch a total of 25 faces this year, Ukrainian media reported, citing company CEO Ildar Saleyev.

"In January our miners put two new coal faces into operation. The plan for February is another three. The plan for the year is 25. The preparation of each face is a difficult and slow affair that takes six months to a year. And mining coal reserves after launch is a very individual thing for each face," Saleyev said on social media.

The "faces that we plan to launch now should become a guarantee of continuity [of coal supplies] in the winter of 2025 already," he said.

He also said the company intends to increase investment in coal mining in Ukraine this year.

DTEK Energy almost doubled investment in coal mining in Ukraine to about UAH7 billion in 2023 and put 26 new coal mine faces into operation.

The company had also imported 226,000 tonnes of thermal coal from Poland as of the end of January 2024 in order to get through the fall and winter season. This is about two thirds of the coal contracted for import during the heating season, which was recently increased to 367,000 tonnes.

DTEK is a vertically integrated company that generates electricity from coal. The company had 13.3 GW of installed thermal power capacity as of January 2022 and a full-fledged coal business with mining and washing, as well as engineering and mine equipment servicing.

DTEK was formed in 2005 to manage the energy assets of Rinat Akhmetov's System Capital Management Group.

The official exchange rate was UAH37.59/$1 on February 8.