Dmytro Lyppa, General Director of Ukraine’s GTS Operator, took part in the panel discussion titled “Ukrainian gas market: from production to the end consumer. Ways of development” which was held within the framework of the 8th Ukrainian Gas Forum “New world energy architecture and green transition.”

In his speech, the Operator’s CEO spoke about the priorities in the company’s work in order to increase efficiency and develop strategic international partnerships.

“Optimisation of the GTS’s infrastructure, reduction of gas consumption, improvement of exploitation and maintenance practices – these are the areas on which we have already been actively working and which will yield positive effect in the near future. Our European partners call these processes “rightsizing”, i.e. determination of an optimal, economically feasible scale of the GTS’s operation,” Dmytro Lyppa noted.

The General Director also commented on the transition to the mobile approach to maintenance of gas distribution stations: “We are implementing the approach that is adopted in Europe: a technician comes to a facility, performs necessary works and goes to a next facility. In 3 to 4 years, we shall have introduced this approach throughout the entire system.”

Speaking of the 3 bcm of natural gas transported to Ukraine from the EU and Moldova this year, Dmytro Lyppa emphasised the successful completion of independent international stress testing of Ukraine’s GTS and UGFs being an important prerequisite for achieving the said figure. “Thanks to the joint efforts of Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy, the USAID Energy Security Project, the Energy Community Secretariat, the “Joint Research Center”, the Simone Research Group, and the Naftogaz Group we managed to convince international traders of our reliability and responsibility as partners, even in wartime conditions.”

The GTS Operator of Ukraine is developing its work on attracting foreign traders interested in the transportation and storage of natural gas in Ukraine. The promising countries include Greece, Romania, Azerbaijan and Poland.

“According to our estimates, in the next 3 to 5 years there is going to be a surplus of natural gas in southern Europe at the level of 10 bcm which can be transported to Ukraine for storage. Another direction is Poland. The available capacities at the border are not sufficient to provide a large volume of gas, but as of now they are permanently fully booked, which is definitely a good signal. The development of LNG terminals will also create a surplus of gas in Poland, which we are ready to transport to Ukrainian UGFs,” the Operator’s General Director Dmytro Lyppa summarized.