CEO of LLC Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) Serhiy Makogon says the daily volumes of gas transit via Ukraine in the Hungarian direction have tripled due to repairs on the gas pipeline near the Hungarian-Austrian border.
Read alsoMoldova to store gas in Ukraine's USFs – GTS operatorThe Hungarian GTS operator was forced to start operational repairs over the defects discovered on the gas pipeline near the border between Austria and Hungary, which led to a significant drop in gas supplies from Austria (to 80%), he wrote on Facebook on October 22.
However, the availability of flexible infrastructure in the region allowed traders to quickly restructure gas supply flows.
"In recent days, gas supplies through Ukraine to Hungary (excluding transit from the Russian Federation) have grown from 0.5 million cubic meters [mcm] per day to 1.4 mcm," he added.
Background
- 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 three quarters of 2020, GTSOU transported 39.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas, which was 40% down from 65.40 billion 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.
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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.