Ukraine seeking partner to manage GTS, extending deadline for applications

Ukraine has extended until early March the deadline for applications from international gas companies wishing to participate in the tender for the selection of a foreign partner for the joint management of the Ukrainian gas transmission system (GTS) and maintaining the level of Russian gas transit.

"Ukraine has extended the deadline for applications from potential partners in managing the GTS until March 1, 2018," Adviser to the Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine, Maksym Bilyavskiy, wrote on Facebook.

As UNIAN reported, in early November 2016, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to create a new company, a GTS operator, JSC "Main Gas Pipelines of Ukraine". At the same time, the management of Naftogaz of Ukraine, the national oil and gas holding company, created a new branch in the structure of the Ukrtransgaz state company – "Operator of Ukraine's GTS."

Read alsoTransit of Gazprom's gas via Ukraine down 25% in JanEarlier, the state holding said that the unbundling of the GTS into a new legal entity and involvement of a European partner in its management is necessary so that European companies could buy gas on the eastern border of Ukraine and then transfer it to the European market, thus preserving transit volumes after the completion of the current contract with Russian Gazprom. Naftogaz expects to complete the process of GTS unbundling and attract a foreign partner to its management in 2018.

In January this year, the Cabinet dismissed the management of Naftogaz from the process of finding a partner, including in the working group only the Head of the Supervisory Board of Naftogaz, Clare Spottiswoode.