Ukraine earns extra $300 mln during OPAL pipeline's standstill

"This year, the Ukrainian GTS has additionally earned $300 million while OPAL was not operating," he said at the Oil & Gas 2017 conference in Kyiv on October 24.

As was reported, the European Commission's decision to grant Gazprom access to an additional 30% of the OPAL pipeline capacity (with the existing access to 50%), allowing uniting the Nord Stream capacity with the gas transportation system in Central and Western Europe, bypassing Ukraine, will cause Ukraine, as one of the key gas transit states, financial losses estimated at at least $290-320 million per year, while transit volumes will drop by 10-11 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas per year, according to Naftogaz.

Read alsoNaftogaz files suit with CJEU over ruling on Gazprom’s enhanced access to OPALThis decision was appealed at the European Court of Justice by the Polish oil and gas company PGNiG. According to PGNiG, the court suspended the decision on Gazprom's access to the OPAL gas pipeline on December 27, 2016.

In early March, Naftogaz appealed to the European Court of Justice requesting that they join the lawsuit filed by PGNiG.

UNIAN memo. Germany's OPAL gas pipeline built in 2011 is a land stretch of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, which delivers gas from Russia to the EU. The total length of the gas pipeline is 470 km, with a capacity of 36.5 bcm per year.