The Avdiyivka Coke Plant, the largest coke and chemical products manufacturer in Europe for the iron and steel industry, as well as the provider of heat and electricity for the city of Avdiyivka, is in danger of shutting down because of renewed fighting in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“We’re trying to maintain electricity supplies and warm up water for heating the city until morning. But the plant desperately needs more supplies of natural gas to continue its work; we need a lot of gas. The third and fourth batteries are stopped,” Musa Magomedov, Avdiyivka Coke Plant CEO wrote on Facebook on Jan.30.
Several hours before, on Jan. 30, Magomedov wrote the plant had been left completely without power in the city of 35,000 people, which is some 700 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.
“The plant needs approximately 18,000 cubic meters of natural gas per hour to keep Avdiyivka and the plant alive and not to prevent a humanitarian and ecological disaster,” Magomedov wrote.
Avdiyivka Coke Plant left completely without power due to heavy fighting in Avdiyivka, Donetsk Oblast on Jan.30 (Musa Magomedov Facebook )
In an official statement sent to the press on Jan.31, Metinvest Group CEO Yuriy Ryzhenkov called for an immediate ceasefire, as the ongoing fighting could leave the city without heat in temperatures of -20 degrees Celsius.
“The staff of other Metinvest Group enterprises are working together to help Avdiyivka. We are searching for generators, tents and other heating devices that could help the residents to survive a possible heating cut,” Ryzhenkov said in the statement.
In the morning on Jan. 31, Magomedov wrote that the workers of the plant had managed to maintain the heat all night, using coke gas from burning coal. “The staff is waiting for extra gas supplies to keep working,” Magomedov wrote.
Hanna Dudka, Ukraine’s Coal and Energy Ministry press secretary, told the Kyiv Post on Jan.31 that the ministry’s administration staff were conducting an urgent meeting on the Avdiyivka case and had no comments yet.
The Avdiyivka Plant is part of Metinvest Holding, a group of steel and mining companies belonging to the billionaire Donetsk oligarch Rinat Akhmetov.
Naftogas spokesperson Aliona Osmolovska told the Kyiv Post that the Avdiyivka Plant got its energy supplies from another company belonging to Akhmetov – DTEK’s Naftogazvydobuvannya, a large private coal and gas producer.
However DTEK press secretary Natalia Stryapan said the company is only responsible for providing electricity supplies for the plant. She said that it gets its gas supplies from DonbasOblgas.
“Our brigades are ready to repair the electricity lines, which were destroyed by shelling. But of course they need a ceasefire to start working,” Stryapan told the Kyiv Post.
Mykola Starovoyt, CEO of the UkrKoks scientific and industrial association, told the Kyiv Post on Jan. 31 that despite heavy fighting, the Avdiyivka Plant had stopped two of its four production units.
“It’s too early to speak about an ecological and humanitarian disaster. But the plant must get the extra gas supplies as soon as possible,” Starovoyt said.
Osmolska said that the plant, that used to work on coke gas and electricity, was forced to switch to natural gas to maintain heat in the city.
Starovoyt added that some other enterprises of the Metinvest Group might be badly affected if the Avdiyivka plant shuts down.
Donetsk Oblast news media website novosti.dn.ua reported on Jan. 31 that the Metinvest Group’s plants in Mariupol have partly stopped operating, as many of them depend on coke supplies from the Avdiyivka plant.
“The Illych Metallurgy Combine in Mariupol is running only two charcoal blast furnaces out of five, and the Azovsteel Metallurgy Plant is running four out of five. But they have their own coke oven batteries,” Metinvest’s press service told Novosti.dn.ua.
