How Putin teased Ukraine with gas transit
Main intrigue yesterday's statement by Vladimir Putin about Ukraine maintaining its status as a transit country for Russian gas to Europe – the question is where Kyiv will get the money to restore its gas transportation system.
German political scientist Alexander Rahr stated this on the air of the 112 Ukraine channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“As far as I understand, although I was not present at the negotiations, this topic appeared and, as Merkel herself said even before the meeting, Russia said that it was starting negotiations with Ukraine on extending the timing of gas pumping through Ukrainian territory to Europe. This was the condition that the Germans and those Europeans set who agreed to the Nord Stream 2 project.
It can be said that it will be built simply for commercial reasons. American liquefied gas will also come to Europe, but later, because it is expensive and there is no technical ability to pump it here. Ukraine will remain, in one form or another, a transit country for Russian gas.
The question here is different: how will the entire gas system of Ukraine be restored or reformed, and which Western companies will take part in the conversion of this project,” Rahr said.
Earlier, expert of the Russian Council on International Affairs Alexander Gushchin stated that Ukraine You shouldn’t count on full-fledged operation of the GTS even after Putin’s words about basic readiness to maintain transit. Most likely, the volume of gas that will be pumped through the Ukrainian gas transportation system will be insufficient for profitable use of the system, the expert explained.
The head of Naftogaz, Andrey Kobolev, previously admittedthat Ukraine will lose at least 34 billion cubic meters of gas transit volume per year due to Nord Stream. The Ukrainian GTS can pump 151 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Europe, however, for example, in 2014 it transported only 62 billion cubic meters of Russian fuel. The construction of the second branch, therefore, could completely deprive Ukraine of profits from transporting Russian gas.
“Currently, most of Russian gas is pumped to Europe through the territory of Ukraine. And the gas transportation system (GTS) of this country is catastrophically underfunded. At best, only 20% of the required amounts are allocated for repairs and modernization. In the not too distant future, the degree of wear and tear on the Ukrainian “pipe” will reach such levels that it will be impossible to supply gas via this route to Europe. Purely physically. No politics," warned Deputy General Director of the Institute of National Energy Alexander Frolov.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.