Ukraine to Diversify Gas Imports

Ukraine will look to the Trans-Caspian pipeline and reverse flow through existing pipelines to diversify its imports, a Ukrainian minister has said.

The country, which imports approximately 70 per cent of its annual gas needs from Russia, has long been seeking to break its dependence on Russian supply, particularly in light of several disagreements with main supplier Gazprom.

Yesterday, Ukrainian Minister of Economic Development and Trade Petro Poroshenko said that Ukraine could greatly diversify its imports if it utilised pipelines already available to it, as well as the Trans-Caspian pipeline which has yet to be completed.

If the exisiting pipelines could successfully have their flow of gas reversed, Ukraine would be able to source a larger proportion of its imports from within the European Union.

Ukraine has been vowing to decrease its monthly supply from Gazprom since the beginning of this year. In January this year, Naftogaz, Ukraine's national gas company, said that it was planning to almost halve its Russian gas imports from 52 billion cubic metres to 27 billion cubic metres. However, the plan stumbled in February due to severe weather conditions across Europe which necessitated Ukraine taking more than its usual amount of gas from Gazprom.

The country is now back on line to fulfilling its intention to break its reliance on Russian gas, going so far as to earlier this month pledge €790 million to the Trans-Caspian pipeline project in an official proposal to Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.