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obligations to Donetsksteel creditors) Pokrovske Coal, and Metinvest as its potential parent company.
9.0​ Industry & Sectors 9.1 ​Sector news
9.1.1​ Oil & gas sector news
Ukraine’s cabinet published on Jan. 18 a resolution to introduce interim regulation of natural gas prices to be supplied for households. ​The regulated price of UAH6,990 / tcm (without distribution costs) will be introduced since Feb. 1 until the end of COVID-related restrictions, but no more than Mar. 31. The government attributes this measure to being a program of protecting the population from the consequences of the quarantine restrictions, also formally having added natural gas to the list of goods of social importance during the quarantine period.
Russian gas transit across Ukraine fell by 38% in 2020 to 55.8bn cubic meters (bcm), a 30-year record low​, head of the operator of the country's gas system Sergei Makogon said in an article for the Ekonomicheskaya Pravda newspaper on January 13 as cited by Prime.
"On the one hand, Gazprom paid for 65 bcm of capacity because Ukraine managed to force it to include a pump or pay norm in the contract. On the other hand, this is a record low in the last 30 years," Makogon said.
He said that the capacity of the system was loaded by less than 30%. The official added that Ukraine can lose 15 bcm of transit more due to the launch of TurkStream's second line.
Russia's state-owned gas giant​ ​Gazprom​ sent its European customers nearly a third less gas via Ukraine’s pipeline network in 2020 ​than it did a year earlier, the head of the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine LLC (GTSOU) Serhiy Makogon said o January 6, as cited by Interfax Ukraine.
The reduction in gas volumes means that Gazprom has sent less gas than it is contractually obliged to send, but under the terms of a deal signed at the last minute in December 2019 Gazprom will pay transit fees on the whole amount stated in the contract.
The contract provides for the transit of at least 65bn cubic meters of Russian gas in 2020, which is 178mn cubic meters per day.
Gazprom was sending about 180mn cubic meters per day through Ukraine’s pipes at the end of December but as soon as the contract expired on January 1 this year the volumes fell off dramatically to about 130mn cubic meters per day early January, Interfax reports.
Under the terms of the transit deal signed in December 2019 Russia is obliged to send 40 bcm every year in 2021-2024. Payment for the contracted volumes is guaranteed even if the smaller amount of gas is pumped through the
62​ UKRAINE Country Report​ February 2021 ​ ​www.intellinews.com