According to a Reuters article, Ukraine’s gas transport operator stated that Russia had not yet designated any gas flows through the Ukrainian pipeline from January 1, to Europe.
This development occurs just before the end of a 5-year contract between Gazprom Ukraine and Naftogaz.
Ukraine has continued to transport Russian gas through pipelines to Europe despite the fact that it is at war with Russia since 2022. The agreement between the two countries has been signed in 2019.
Ukraine does not renew transit agreement
Ukraine has recently announced that it will not extend the contract to transport Russian gas to Europe when it expires December 31. The reason for this is because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on a full scale in February 2022.
According to Reuters 2025 may be the first year since 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, that no gas will be transported via Ukraine from Russia into Europe.
The western powers, such as the UK or US, imposed severe sanctions on Moscow’s exports of energy after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Before the 2022 conflict between Moscow & Kyiv, Russia used to account for nearly half of all gas imported by the European Union.
Export volumes
According to calculations by Reuters and Gazprom, Russia exported a total 63.8 billion cubic meters of gas via different routes to Europe in 2022.
The report states that this volume will drop to only 28.3 billion cubic meters in 2023. Reuters reported that the volume of this product could even be smaller, around 14 bcm.
In 2018-2019 the annual flow to the European Union will be around 175 to 180 billion cubic meters, which is a sharp increase over the current levels.
According to Reuters Ukraine used to receive billions every year in transit gas from Russia to Europe prior to the war.
The payments to Ukraine have dropped by about $800 millions this year due to the significant drop in volume.
According to Bruegel – a global think tank agency – the overall share of Ukrainian gas transit in EU imports has fallen from 11% to 5%.
The EU’s non-binding target is to stop all Russian energy imports before 2027.
The Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline transits gas from western Siberia through the Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region. The gas is then transported through Ukraine and Slovakia.
The pipeline in Slovakia is split into two branches, one from the Czech Republic to Austria and the other towards Austria. Hungary, Slovakia, and Austria are major gas buyers.
As new information becomes available, this post Russia confirms that it will export zero gas to Europe via Ukraine on January 1, 2019 may be updated.
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