WORLD: Putin says that Russia wants to continue gas transit to Europe via Ukraine
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President Vladimir Putin said that Russia intends to continue pumping natural gas to the European Union via Ukraine, but added that Moscow cannot force Kiev to comply with a transit agreement that expires at the end of this year, reports Reuters, taken by Agerpres. Practically, Putin “throws the dead cat” in the garden of Kiev, which announced that it will not extend the transit agreement. The current gas transit agreement between Gazprom and Naftogaz (the state-owned gas transportation company on the territory of Ukraine), which expires at the end of 2024, was signed on December 30, 2019, following negotiations involving Russia, Ukraine, Germany, France and the European Commission. According to the agreement, Gazprom committed to transit 65 billion cubic meters of gas through Ukraine in 2020 and 40 billion cubic meters per year in 2021-2024. The main recipients of gas passing through Ukraine were Austria, Slovakia, Italy, Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced that he will not extend the Russian gas transit agreement to Europe, but if Europe asks, he can make available its infrastructure for gas from other sources. Thus, the idea of a Russian-Azerbaijani-Turkmen-European swap appeared. More precisely, gas will pass through Ukraine which, from a commercial point of view, is from Azerbaijan, but in fact it is Russian molecules, given in return for the gas that Russia should have given to Turkmenistan and which, in fact, will be of Azeri molecule.
“As for Ukraine, even if it seems strange, we are not abandoning this transit. Why? Because we, and Gazprom, intended to honor our obligations to our customers with whom we have long-term contracts,” Putin said at the economic forum in Vladivostok.
“There is a transit agreement that expires on December 31, this year. But if Ukraine refuses transit, well, we can’t force it,” added Putin.
The Russian president also said that Gazprom’s main customers in Europe do not seem to want the transit agreement concluded, even if they have provided military assistance to Ukraine.
The Soviet-era Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhgorod gas pipeline transports natural gas from western Siberia to Europe via the Sudzha point in Russia’s Kursk region. From there it enters the territory of Ukraine in the direction of Slovakia. On the territory of Slovakia, the gas pipeline divides into two branches: one going to the Czech Republic and the other to Austria.
If Ukraine refuses to allow the transit of Russian gas through its territory, Russia could use the TurkStream pipeline, located on the bottom of the Black Sea, to supply Europe.
“Ukraine refuses the transit of our gas, which means that the volumes of gas entering Europe will decrease,” Putin said. “They will follow other routes, especially TurkStream, maybe through the Blue Stream pipeline to Turkey. But that is their choice. How it will affect them, I don’t know,” added the Russian leader.
As a result of the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has stopped most of its pipeline gas deliveries to Europe, but there are still some quantities of Russian gas that continue to pass through Ukraine. These deliveries cover most of the gas demand in countries such as Austria, Hungary and Slovakia.
Gazprom data shows that in 2022, Russia delivered 63.8 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe via various routes, but these volumes fell by 55.6% to 28.3 billion cubic meters last year.
Comparatively, before the war, the Russian group Gazprom exported approximately 177 billion cubic meters of gas annually, through several pipelines, to its key markets in Europe and Turkey.
