2nd of September, 2020, Kyiv – For 8 months of 2020, the Gas TSO of Ukraine transported, by customers’ order, 12.5 bln cub m of gas from Europe to Ukraine. This is 30% (2.9 bln cub m) higher than in the same period last year. This is also 63% higher than the average in 2016-2019.
“Gas imports to Ukraine have become a record for the last five years. In this case, this is good news, because 65% of these volumes were brought to Ukraine by traders for storage and further transit, and only the rest went to the Ukrainian market. It means that Ukraine is geopolitically and economically is interesting and profitable partner for Europe. Therefore, the Gas TSO will continue to work on the business development of its capabilities, including the direction of establishing a European gas hub in Ukraine.” – said Sergiy Makogon, General Director of GTSOU.
In total, for 8 months of 2020, imports from Slovakia amounted to 8.0 bln cub m (+35% compared to the same period last year), from Hungary – 3.2 bln cub m (+20%) and from Poland – 1.3 bln cub m (+34%).
In particular, 38%, or 4.7 bln cub m were imported by means of the virtual reverse flow (backhaul), which became available for the first time in 2020: from Slovakia – 1.6 bln cub m, from Hungary – 2.3 bln cub m and from Poland – 0.8 bln cub m.
It should be noted that on September 1, the GTSOU started repair works on the section of the Luping-4 gas pipeline, which passes through the GMS Budince on the border with Slovakia, and plans to complete it by September 21. During the repair, significant import capacities are available for gas transportation customers at the Uzhgorod – Velke Kapusany interconnection point in the form of a virtual reverse, which allows to completely compensate the temporarily unavailable capacities of the Budince IP. By own side, GTSOU transferred the reserved capacity from the Budince IP to Uzhgorod – Velke Kapusany IP on the free basis.
According to GTSOU operative data, in August 2020, 3.4 bln cub m of natural gas were imported to Ukraine. That is 58% (or 1.2 bln cub m) higher than the import volumes of July 2020 and is 67% (or 1.4 bln cub m) higher than in August 2019.
Also in August, reverse flow from Romania to Ukraine was carried out for the first time.
The daily volumes of gas transmission from the European countries to Ukraine amounted 109 mln cub m, while in January this year it was 7 times less – only 15 mln cub m.
Such boost in imports is due to a significant increase in demand for the gas storage in the “customs warehouse” mode in Ukrainian facilities by European companies. Due to restricted capacities available at European UGS 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.
Starting from the beginning of the year, 8.2 bln cub m of imported volumes were transferred to underground storage facilities into the “customs warehouse” mode. Of which 60% (or 4.9 bln cub m) came by means of the “shorthaul – customs warehouse” and 40% (or 3,3 bln cub m) by means of the “border – customs warehouse”.
In total, 72 traders have booked gas transmission from the EU to Ukraine in January-August, including 45 Ukrainian companies and 27 foreign companies. And the services of shorthaul and “customs warehouse” were used by more than fifty companies – most of which are non-residents.
It should be noted, that starting from November 2015, all imported volumes of natural gas come exclusively from EU countries. Since that month, Ukraine has not been importing natural gas from the Russian Federation.
