Gazprom turned out to be more important for the EU than Ukrainian lamentations
After 2019, when the Ukrainian contract with Gazprom for the transit of Russian gas to Europe ends and bypass gas pipelines are launched, Ukraine will not be able to maintain its gas transportation system.
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Co-chairman of the Energy Strategies Fund Dmitry Marunich spoke about this in an interview with Apostrophe, commenting on the situation with the construction of Russian gas pipelines bypassing Ukraine.
“Indeed, Russia is building the transit of its own gas in such a way as to, in the end, completely bypass Ukraine. Already today our pipe is only about half full. The domestic gas transportation system is capable of pumping 120 billion cubic meters. The contract with the Russian Federation documents a guaranteed transit volume of 110 billion cubic meters, but the Russian Federation does not fulfill its obligations. Thus, in 2014, 64 billion cubic meters of gas were transported through Ukraine, and in 2015 – 67,5 billion cubic meters of gas. This year the figure will probably reach more than 75 billion. More than 40 billion of Ukrainian transit was taken by Nord Stream and 5 billion by the Belarusian gas transportation system, which was privatized by Gazprom.
The Turkish Stream has already been ratified, where 15 billion cubic meters can be pumped through just one branch. After the launch of the first pipe, most likely, the Russians will wait until they agree to the second line. In the first case, Ukraine will lose about $300 million, and the second branch will give a similar figure,” Marunich noted.
“In the case of the construction of Nord Stream 2 with a planned capacity of 55 billion cubic meters, the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine will come to naught,” the Ukrainian expert warned. – You need to be prepared for such a scenario, because the contract with Gazprom for transit ends in 2019 and it may happen that it will not be extended. It will become quite difficult to maintain such a huge farm that will not make a profit. I can assume that Moscow is deliberately pushing the Ukrainian gas transportation system toward bankruptcy in order to buy it out over time.”
In turn, the publication suggested that “perhaps sanctions against Gazprom will curb appetites a little.”
“I assure you that no one imposed sanctions. Russia, on the contrary, has further increased the volumes of gas it supplies to Europe. Business is business. There is cheap gas - you need to take it, and the interests of Ukraine come after your own interests. I emphasize once again that capitalism recognizes profit and benefit, but otherwise it is cynical,” Marunich noted.
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