REUTERS
Despite this, since the beginning of 2020, the capacities for Russian gas transit have been fully paid for by Russia's Gazprom under a new gas transit deal.
Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) LLC has said the transit of natural gas through the gas transmission system in January-March 2020 shrank by 53% year-over-year (y-o-y), to 11.1 billion cubic meters (bcm).
In particular, in March alone, gas transit from Russia via Ukraine amounted to 4.6 billion bcm, which was 18% up from February 2020, but 36% down y-o-y, the company said on its website on April 2.
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However, since the beginning of 2020, the capacities for Russian gas transit have been fully paid by Russia's Gazprom in accordance with a new gas transit deal, which stipulates payments for gas transit at a rate of 65 bcm per year, or 178 million cubic meters per day.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the transit of natural gas through the Ukrainian gas transmission system increased by 3.2% to 89.58 bcm in 2019.
Transit supplies of natural gas through the Ukrainian GTS in 2018 shrank by 7.1% against 2017, to 86.774 bcm.
On December 30, 2019, Ukraine and Russia signed a new gas transit contract for a period of five years, obliging Russia's Gazprom to pump a minimum of 65 billion bcm of gas via Ukraine in the first year and 40 bcm annually in the next four years. The parties may extend the contract for another ten years.