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claims that the company is subject to unlawful discrimination in connection with this directive. Among the main provisions of the directive is the separation of companies that supply gas and companies that transport it. This means that the Nord Stream-2 operator must be independent of Gazprom, and 50% of its capacity must be reserved for alternative suppliers. Exceptions are possible, but only with the approval of the European Commission.
About 3 bcm of the stored gas belongs to gas trading companies who park their gas in Ukraine under a bonded warehouse legal framework. Last week, inside the EU, companies started drawing down stocks from EU reservoirs. The EU starts its winter with stocks at a record low for this time of year. Reservoirs are 77% full. In Ukraine, opposition politicians warn that gas traders will move their gas to the EU this winter to take advantage of the high prices.
“We do not expect this gas [of non-residents] to be re-exported,” Yuriy Vitrenko, Naftogaz CEO, said yesterday at a Naftogaz organized energy conference in Kyiv. According to Reuters, he said: “At the moment the wholesale market gas prices in Ukraine are higher than in Europe and therefore it is profitable to sell gas in Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian GTS may start transporting biomethane next year,
announced the Deputy General Director of the GTS Operator of Ukraine, Pavel Stanchak. "I can say that next year we could take biomethane to the networks, provided that all the necessary technical and regulatory requirements are met. Due to the branching of the Ukrainian GTS, producers of this type of fuel will be able to connect to gas networks in most of Ukraine”, said Stanchak.
European gas prices jumped again on October 18 after Russia’s Gazprom refused to book additional gas through Ukraine in November and booked only 35% of the capacity offered by Poland. As Europe’s winter heating season starts, Gazprom has cut it flows across Ukraine to 86 million cubic meters a day– 21% below its contracted pump-or-pay level of 109 million cubic meters. Reuters calculates that during the first two weeks of October, Gazprom’s gas exported 6.5 billion cubic meters outside of the former Soviet Union, compared to 7.3 bcm during the first two months of September.
Gas transit to Hungary via Ukraine resumed. The transit of Russian gas to Hungary through the Berehove border point with Ukraine resumed on October 3 after a temporary suspension. This is illustrated by the data of the Hungarian operator of the gas transmission system (GTS) FGSZ. The fact that the transit of gas through the Ukrainian territory to Hungary had stopped was reported by the Operator of the GTS of Ukraine (OGTSU) on October 1.
Russia has been gradually reducing gas transit through Ukraine.
Gazprom has reduced gas transit through the Ukrainian gas transportation system three times since the beginning of this year, said the General Director of GTS Ukraine Operator, Serhiy Makogon, on Facebook. On January 1st the volume was reduced from 186 million cubic meters per day to 124 million cubic meters. On September 1st it was reduced to 109 million cubic meters, and in October to 86 million cubic meters, although Gazprom still pays for 109 million cubic meters of gas transit.
Ukraine has enough gas in storage facilities for this winter, said the CEO of Naftogaz, Yuriy Vitrenko. Currently, there are almost 19bn cubic meters of
53 UKRAINE Country Report November 2021 www.intellinews.com