Russian gas transit through Ukraine in 2020 decreased by a third

Over the past year, the volume of Russian gas pumped through Ukraine decreased by 38%, that is, to 55.8 billion cubic meters. The authorities attribute this to the launch of new gas pipelines bypassing Ukraine.

This was reported by the press service of the Gas Transportation System of Ukraine.

Despite this, Gazprom continued to pay for traffic as before, like 65 billion cubic meters. According to the fall statement from Naftogaz boss Andrey Kobolev, Ukraine received around two billion dollars in 2020.

“The key factors behind the decline in transit volumes to Europe were the launch of new gas pipelines bypassing Ukraine, as well as a decrease in demand for natural gas in the EU and significant gas reserves at UGS ‘European facilities. The transit agreement with Gazprom foresees the reserve of 65 billion cubic meters of capacity (178 million cubic meters / day) in 2020 and 40 billion cubic meters (110 million cubic meters / day) in 2021-2024. last year, the traffic was 14% lower (or 9.2 billion cubic meters), At the same time, Gazprom has already paid in full the full volume of the capacities requested under the contract, which stipulates the condition of “unloading or pay, “says the message.

At the same time, gas supply from Europe increased by 12% compared to the previous year, to 15.9 billion cubic meters.

“In 2020, the Ukrainian GTS operator has fulfilled its key tasks 100%: it has provided reliable gas transport to Ukrainian consumers and has fully met its obligations for gas transit to the EU and Moldova,” said the CEO. from OGTSU, Serhiy Makogon.

Let us remind you that on the morning of January 1, Serbian President Aleksandr Vucic launched gas through Balkan Stream, which will now supply gas from Russia to the country. This gas pipeline is a continuation of the Turkish current, which runs along the bottom of the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey.

As reported by “Strana”, the time of “H” in the gas market is approaching and the issue of the transit of Russian gas remains open. The next round of negotiations on this issue, which took place on October 28 in Brussels, further confused the situation. The European Commission said they were “disappointed” with the talks, as there was “no progress”.