The Ukrtransgaz company has proposed signing an agreement with the Eustream company, which is the operator of the Slovak gas transportation system, on merging the two countries’ gas transportation systems. The Interfax Ukraine news agency reported this, citing the press service of Ukrtransgaz, the operator of the Ukrainian gas transportation system.
According to Ukrtransgaz, such an agreement meets the requirements of the European Energy Community, of which both countries are full members.
Until now, Eustream has refused to sign such an agreement.
In addition, in response to information circulated by Eustream on April 24, the Naftogaz of Ukraine national energy company said that the Gazprom Export company does not perform the function of operator of the Ukrainian gas transportation system and that the relevant agreement was not signed between the Russian company and Ukrtransgaz.
The volume of transit of natural gas through Ukraine to Europe and CIS countries reduced by 1.680 billion cubic meters or 8.3% to 18.610 billion cubic meters in January-March 2014, compared with the corresponding period of 2013.
The volume of transit of natural gas through the Ukrainian gas transportation system totaled 86.126 billion cubic meters in 2013, which is 2.2% more than the volume in 2012. Of this volume, transit to European countries totaled 83.74 billion cubic meters and transit to Moldova 2.386 billion cubic meters.
Ukrtransgaz, which is 100% owned by Naftogaz of Ukraine, operates a system of trunk gas pipelines and 12 underground gas storage facilities in the country. The capacity of the Ukrainian gas transportation system is 288 billion cubic meters upstream and 178.5 billion cubic meters downstream, including 142.5 billion cubic meters to Europe and 3.5 billion cubic meters to Moldova.
