Transit of Gazprom's gas via Ukraine down 25% in Jan

The drop is due to a decrease in gas consumption in Europe and Russia’s use of a route bypassing Ukraine.

"If we compare Jan 1 and Jan 22 of this year, the volume of Russian gas transit via the Ukrainian GTS was reduced from 238.7 million cubic meters to 180 million cubic meters per day," Belyavksy said.

"Today temperatures are relatively high in Europe compared with forecasts down to -2 degrees at night on average instead of -5 degrees," the adviser to the minister noted.

Read alsoEU envoy underlines importance of reforming, modernizing Ukraine's GTSAnother reason for the decrease in transit volumes, Belyavsky believes, was the delivery by Gazprom of its gas that has been accumulated in the summer in European-based gas storage facilities, as well as the use of the OPAL gas pipeline passing through Germany and being an extension of the pipe laid across the Baltic Sea, Nord Stream-1.  

The minister's adviser noted that in the future the situation may change, as temperatures might drop and consumption - increase.

As UNIAN reported earlier, gas transit via the Ukrainian GTS in 2016 increased by 23% compared to 2015 - up to 82.2 billion cubic meters. By the end of 2017, a record value was reached over the past few years at 93 bcm.