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Putin said that Gazprom will exceed its obligations on gas transit through Ukraine, but will not increase supplies

“Our contractual obligations for deliveries through the Ukrainian gas transportation system are 40 billion cubic meters of gas per year. And for the first nine months of this year, Gazprom has increased these supplies, this pumping, more precisely, through the transport system of Ukraine, by more than 8%. that we will exceed our contractual obligations for gas supplies through the territory of Ukraine. Increasing more for Gazprom is economically unprofitable, because it is more expensive. Pumping through the new systems is much cheaper by about $ 3 billion a year to the corresponding volumes of supplies, “Putin said.

The head of the Kremlin added that Gazprom in 2021 may update the record for gas supplies to Europe set in 2018 (201.7 billion cubic meters).

Context:

Since the fall of 2015, Ukraine has not imported natural gas under a contract with Gazprom, purchasing gas on its western border.

Naftogaz and Gazprom signed a new contract for gas transit for five years on December 30, 2019. The minimum guaranteed pumping under the new “pump or pay” contract is 65 billion cubic meters of gas in the first year and 40 billion cubic meters each in the next four. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that as part of a five-year gas transit contract Ukraine will receive more than $ 7 billion.

In 2020, 55.8 billion cubic meters of Russian gas were transported through the territory of Ukraine to the European Union – this is lowest rate in seven years, reported on January 2, 2021 in LLC “GTS Operator of Ukraine”.

In July of this year, it became known that the Serbian company Srbijagas and the Hungarian FGSZ completed the construction of the linear part of the Balkan Stream gas pipeline, through which Hungary will be able to receive Russian gas bypassing Ukraine.

September 27 Hungarian State Energy Group MVM CEEnergy Zrt signed an agreement with Gazprom on Russian gas supplies for the period up to 2036.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said they were surprised and disappointed by Hungary’s decision, and also warned of their intention to apply to the European Commission on this matter. General Director of the “GTS Operator of Ukraine” Serhiy Makogon said that gas transit to Hungary through Ukraine can stop completelydespite the contract valid until 2024.

The Kremlin named gas supplies to Hungary not through the Ukrainian gas transmission system “a matter of economic viability”.

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which is supposed to connect Russia with Germany along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, also poses a threat to Ukraine’s energy security. Its construction fully completed, the Russian corporation Gazprom said on September 10. On October 4, Gazprom reported that began filling the first string of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline with gas.

The head of the board of NJSC “Naftogaz Ukraine” Yuriy Vitrenko in a commentary to the TV channel “House” On July 12 this year, he warned of the threats to the Ukrainian economy after the launch of Nord Stream 2. “If the construction of Nord Stream 2 is completed, then there is a high risk that the physical volumes of gas that now pass through Ukraine to Europe will decrease. Perhaps after 2024 they will turn at all,” he predicted.

Launch of Nord Stream 2 must be approved by the European Commission, said Vitrenko.

Supreme Regional Court of Düsseldorf, Germany 25 August ordered the pipeline operator be independent from Gazprom and adhere to European legislation. Makogon stated that this is “exactly what Ukraine insists on”.

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