ASTANA, Aug. 7 – Ukraine is currently assessing commercial offers from Kazakh coal producers in terms of prospective coal shipments, Kazakhstan's energy ministry told Interfax.

"Should the Ukrainian coal consumers make a decision to go ahead, shipments of coal from Kazakhstan to Ukraine would be carried out under contracts signed by economic agents of two countries. Such contracts are to stipulate certain volumes of shipments, [conditions of] transportation, as well as liabilities of two parties with regard to their execution of the contract," the ministry said.

"Given the potential for increasing coal production as well as capacities of our coal producers, Kazakhstan is in a position to offer Ukraine considerable volumes of coal shipments," the letter the ministry's press service sent in reply to an Interfax query said.