Ukraine Gas Transits Up by Fifth in 1H

The volume of natural gas transited through Ukraine in the first half of 2017 reached 45.7bn m³. an increase year on year of 21%.

The figure was announced July 2 by Maxim Bilyavsky, spokesman for the country's gas grid operator Ukrtransgaz and adviser to the country's energy and coal ministry. On current projections, about 90bn m³ are expected to have transited to European customers by the end of 2017, he added.  

Gas imports to Ukraine – from EU countries using reverse-flow schemes – more than doubled to 7bn m³ in 1H2017, he added, while Ukraine's domestic gas production reached 10.3bn m³, up 3%. Injection of gas into underground gas storage also increased to 3.7bn m³.

Gazprom chief Alexei Miller told a June 30 press conference that the maximum volume of Russian gas that will transit Ukraine after 2019, when the existing gas transit contract between Naftogaz Ukraine and Gazprom that started 2009 will expire, will not exceed 15bn m³.

According to Gazprom's own data, Russian gas transits through Ukraine were 82.2bn m³, up from 67.1bn m³ in 2015. 

Azerbaijan Desk