REUTERS
The Polish-Russian gas transit contract engaging the Yamal gas pipeline is expiring on May 18.
CEO of LLC Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) Serhiy Makogon says the company is ready to handle natural gas transit from Slovakia to Poland, as well as pump gas out of the Ukrainian underground storage facilities (USFs) in case of a halt to gas supplies from Russia via the Yamal-Europe pipeline from May 18.
"At some traders' request, trial shipments of gas from Slovakia to Poland via Ukraine's GTS were carried out in the #shorthaul mode along with supplies from the Ukrainian USFs to Poland as part of preparations for various possible scenarios. The deliveries proved the country's capability to fully provide Poland with required resources in the event of interruption/reduction of supplies from the Russian Federation," he said on Facebook on April 30.
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The Polish-Russian gas transit contract engaging the Yamal gas pipeline (33 billion cubic meters) is expiring on May 18, he said. However, the final arrangements have not been reached yet.
As UNIAN reported earlier, in the middle of March, Ukraine for the first time transited gas between two European countries. In particular, a German energy trader ordered transit shipments of natural gas via Ukraine between Hungary and Slovakia.
The transit of natural gas through the Ukrainian gas transmission system increased by 3.2%, to 89.58 billion cubic meters in 2019.
On January 1, 2020, the functions of the country's operator of trunk gas pipelines were transferred from state-owned Ukrtransgaz to LLC Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine, which was transferred to Magistralni Gazoprovody Ukrainy's management subordinated to Ukraine's Finance Ministry.