Page 8 - FSUOGM Week 46 2021

FSUOGM PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM

Naftogaz gets involved in Nord

Stream 2 certification

UKRAINE NAFTOGAZ will participate in the certification anticipiated in January; however, according to
of Nord Stream 2, the German energy regulator recent reports, the final decision may now be
The approval process BNetzA said on November 15. delayed until May.
is expected to take four BNetzA is currently considering an applica- Ukraine is adamantly opposed to the new
months. tion by the Russians for certification of the $11bn pipeline that could cost it some $2bn in fore-
controversial pipeline that will allow Russia to gone transit fees. The national gas company Naf-
bypass Ukraine in delivering gas to Europe. togaz has been lobbying to have the pipeline
The pipeline was completed in September and mothballed and also insisted on being included
has been filled with technical gas so it could go into in the process of assessing its application for
operation tomorrow, but gas has not been allowed certification.
to flow until the German regulator signs off on it. Naftogaz CEO Yuri Vitrenko said: “The regu-
In a preliminary result BNetzA has already lator must consider our position and arguments
said that Nord Stream 2 does not threaten Ger- in the certification process.”
man or the EU’s energy security. Those who are admitted to the certification
The approval process is expected to take process have the right to give their assessment,
four months and a decision had initially been but no veto rights. ™

Mongolia hopeful that work on Russia-

China gas pipe can begin in 2024

MONGOLIA MONGOLIA’S government is hopeful that con- Russian sources that spoke with the
struction can get underway on a pipeline to flow Moscow-based Kommersant newspaper
A feasibility study is Russian gas through the country to China in expressed doubt that construction of Soyuz
70% complete. 2024, local news agency Montsame has reported. Vostok would indeed begin as early as 2024.
But with China and Russia yet to finalise a gas It notably took decades for a supply contract
sales contract to underpin the project, this is to be reached for shipments via China and
likely over-ambitious. Russia, with the gas price proving to be a
Mongolian Deputy Prime Minister Sainbuy- major sticking point. Even after the $400bn
angiin Amarsaikhan was quoted by the news deal was finally reached in 2014, it was
agency as saying that a feasibility study on the reportedly revised several years later after
project, named Soyuz Vostok, was now 70% the collapse in oil prices.
complete. It is expected to be finished by the end In a sign of progress, Russian President
of the year, he said. Vladimir Putin announced in late October
Russia and China first mooted a plan to build that an agreement “in principle” had been
a second gas pipeline between them in Septem- reached with Beijing on a route for the second
ber 2019, two months before the launch of their pipeline. Moscow had earlier pushed for the
first pipeline, Power of Siberia. Soyuz Vostok is construction of a pipeline directly to China via
set to flow up to 50bn cubic metres per year of the Altai mountains, but Beijing was not happy
gas, which adding to the 38 bcm per year that with this option, as it would have entailed the
Power of Siberia will deliver at full capacity, will development of significantly more kilometres of
dramatically expand Russia’s share of the Chi- pipeline in China to bring the gas to the country’s
nese gas market. industrialised eastern seaboard. ™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 46 17•November•2021