From January to August, Ukraine imported 12.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas from the European Union, 30 percent more than in the same period last year, the energetyka24.com website reported.
Of this, imports from Slovakia totaled 8 billion cubic metres, supplies from Hungary came to 3.2 billion cubic metres, and flows from Poland stood at 1.3 billion cubic metres.
In August alone, Ukraine imported 3.4 billion cubic meters of gas, 58 percent more than in July and 67 percent more than in August 2019, the Polish website reported, citing Ukraine’s gas transmission system operator GTS for the data.
The company’s CEO Serhiy Makogon was quoted as saying that 65 percent of these volumes “were brought to Ukraine by traders for storage and further transit, and only the rest went to the Ukrainian market.”
This means that Ukraine is “geopolitically and economically” an “interesting and profitable partner for Europe,” Makogon said, as quoted on the company’s website.
The Ukrainian gas transmission system operator said on its website that the surge in imports was chiefly due to a significant increase in demand from European companies for gas storage in Ukrainian facilities.
“Due to restricted capacities available at European UGS [underground gas storage facilities] and attractive tariffs and services in Ukraine, this year Ukraine is breaking records for gas intakes into underground storage facilities and is taking an important step towards development as a European gas hub,” the Ukrainian gas transmission system operator said on its website.
It added that Ukraine stopped importing gas from Russia in 2015.
“Starting from November 2015, all imported volumes of natural gas come exclusively from EU countries,” the Ukrainian company said.
Ukraine’s government this year approved a memorandum to work together with an American company to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States, according to a report by Poland’s PAP news agency.
The Polish state news agency cited Ukraine’s acting energy minister Olga Buslavets as saying at the time that the project "provides for exploring the possibility of diversifying natural gas supplies through long-term deliveries of liquefied gas and the development of a cross-border gas infrastructure” between Ukraine and the EU.
Ukraine expects to import at least 5.5 billion cubic metres of US LNG a year over a period of at least two decades as part of efforts to reduce Ukraine's dependence on Russian gas, according to reports.
The Polish state news agency in May cited a Ukrainian parliamentarian as saying that the memorandum also provided for the development of a gas infrastructure between Ukraine and Poland.
In March, Ukraine’s deputy energy and environment minister Konstantyn Chyzhyk reportedly announced that Washington and Kiev had agreed plans to supply 6 to 8 billion cubic metres of liquefied gas per year to Ukraine via terminals in Poland.
(gs)
Source: energetyka24.com, tsoua.com