CEO of LLC Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) Serhiy Makogon says transit shipments of natural gas through the country's gas transmission system in January-October 2020 shrank by 38.4% year-over-year (y-o-y), to 45 billion cubic meters (bcm).
Read alsoUkraine triples gas transit to Hungary – GTS operator"[Gas] transit from Russia reached 45 bcm in the 10 months. We forecast it may reach 55-56 bcm by the end of the year," he wrote on Facebook on November 2.
Gas transit: Background
- 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 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.
- According to Naftogaz's estimates, Ukraine is expected to receive about US$7.2 billion from the transit of Russian gas over the five years.
- On January 1, 2020, the functions of the operator of the country's trunk gas pipelines were transferred from state-owned Ukrtransgaz to LLC Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine, which is subject to state-owned Magistralni Gazoprovody Ukrainy managed by Ukraine's Finance Ministry.
- For the three quarters of 2020, GTSOU transported 39.5 bcm of gas, which was 40% down from 65.40 bcm reported year-over-year.
- In particular, 36.8 bcm of gas (40% down) was transported westward, i.e. 2.9 bcm to Poland, 27.2 bcm to Slovakia, and 6.8 bcm to Hungary.
- Gas transit in the southern direction totaled 2.6 bcm (76% down), including 0.54 bcm to Romania and 2 bcm to Moldova.
- The decrease in transit along the southern route of Ukraine's GTS was due to the launch in January 2020 of the TurkStream gas pipeline, which transports gas from Russia to Turkey and afterwards to the Balkans.
- In September 2020, Russia's Gazprom placed an order for additional capacities for natural gas transit via the Ukrainian gas transportation system in October 2020.