TAS Energy Country LLC owned by businessman Sergei Tigipko plans to import electricity from Russia
TAS Energy Country LLC, owned by businessman Serhiy Tihipko, plans to import electricity to Ukraine in September-December this year from Russia, having purchased it from Russia's state-owned Inter RAO UES. This is reported by sources in the market.
According to market sources, TAS Energy Country LLC plans to purchase up to 600 million kWh of Russian electricity.
As reported by ExPro, on September 18, the Verkhovna Rada, on the proposal by the Chairman of the Committee on Energy, Housing, and Utilities, Andriy Gerus, amended the Law of Ukraine "On the Electricity Market", which now allows import of electricity from Russia and Belarus to the Ukrainian Integrated Power System under bilateral contracts.
Inter RAO UES is a Russian energy company with state-owned companies as its main shareholders. In 2018, the company exported 16.712 billion kWh of electricity, and major volumes of electricity were sold to Finland, Lithuania, China and Kazakhstan. According to Inter RAO UES, 45 million kWh were exported to Ukraine last year. Chairman of the Board of Directors of Inter RAO UES Igor Sechin, who also heads the largest Russian oil company Rosneft, is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The media has repeatedly published information that Inter RAO UES supplies electricity to annexed Crimea and the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Lugansk regions. In particular, in June 2018, the Russian news agency RBC reported that Karina Tsurkan, Inter RAO UES top manager, is suspected of disseminating information about the supply of electricity to the Donbass to NATO representatives.
In September 2018, the Ukrainian state-owned enterprise Ukrinterenergo won a lawsuit against Inter RAO UES, which claimed the Ukrainian side to pay the debt for the supply of electricity from Russia to the temporarily occupied territories of Donbass in 2014-2015. According to Ukrenergo, the maximum volume of imports from Belarus into the Ukrainian Integrated Power System is 7.3 billion kWh per year, and from Russia - 10.512 billion kWh per year.