OREANDA-NEWS. November 05, 2008. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine will "insistently recommend" energy generation companies of the Energy Company of Ukraine to use thermal coal extracted from state-run mines alone.

According to Coal Industry Minister Viktor Poltavets, the Prime Minister will ink the relevant instruction.

By October 29, storehouses of thermoelectric power plants accumulated 3.479 million tons of coal, 2.486 million tons of which was kept at state-run generation companies, and 0.923 million tons at limited liability company Vostokenergo, the fuel and energy ministry says.

The energy ministry planned to pile up at electric power plants 3.5 million tons of coal by November 1. The volume of coal currently kept in the storehouses is 40.5% or one million tons more than by this date last year.

Against the background of the predicted reduction of energy consumption in Ukraine in the 4th quarter of 2008 (by 1.3%) and the 1st quarter of 2009 (by 0.9%) due to production decline in metallurgy and chemical industry, generation volumes at TPPs may reduce, market participants say. Nuclear power plants will continue functioning, and TPPs will thus cut coal spending.