Page 54 - UKRRptDec21

under PEESA in connection with Nord Stream-2. Gas prices rose by 9% due to sanctions against Nord Stream 2. Prices for December 2021 gas contracts rose to $1,089 per thousand cubic meters after new US sanctions against Russia's Nord Stream 2. On November 23, quotations increased by 8.7% to € 91.9 per MWh or $1089 per thousand cubic meters.
On November 15 Gazprom once again refused to book additional gas transit capacity through Ukraine and via the Yamal-Europe pipeline to Germany for December, just as it did in October and November of this year. At the beginning of November, Gazprom reportedly cut its gas transit via Ukraine by almost half. Furthermore, Ukrainian pipelines transported significantly less Russian gas than planned in October, primarily due to Hungary signing a 15-year agreement with Gazprom to import gas through the southern TurkStream pipeline.
Naftogaz will participate in the certification of Nord Stream-2. The German energy regulator BNetzA has allowed Naftogaz Ukraine to take part in the certification of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline operator. This was announced by the CEO, Yuri Vitrenko. “The regulator must consider our position and arguments in the certification process”, said Vitrenko. Those who are admitted to the certification process have the right to give their assessment, but no veto rights.
Five Ukrainian cities near the border with Russia will lose their gas supply if Nord Stream sharply reduces Russian gas volumes shipped across Ukraine, warns Ukraine’s Gas Transmission System Operator on Facebook. Compressors on Ukraine’s system are not strong enough to pump needed quantities of gas to the nation’s far eastern reaches from the EU. The cities presumably include Kharkiv and Sumy. Also, without Russian gas flowing east, it would not be economical for EU gas trading companies to store gas in Western Ukraine’s gas reservoirs. Currently these depleted underground fields hold 10 billion cubic meters of Russian gas purchased by EU companies.
The Polish infrastructure firm, Gaz-System, has completed the construction of the offshore part of the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline. "This is the completion of the most important stage of work in the Baltic Pipe project”, said the company in a press release. Baltic Pipe is a strategic project to create a new route for the supply of natural gas from Norway to the markets of Denmark and Poland and end-users in neighboring countries, including Ukraine. The pipeline will be able to supply 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually to Poland and 3 billion cubic meters from Poland to Denmark.
Russia is blocking Kazakhstan from sending power plant coal to Ukraine,
Andriy Gerus, head of the Rada Energy Committee, announced by Telegram. “All relevant deliveries in November are blocked,” Gerus wrote yesterday. “Technically, blocking occurs at the level of Russian Railways.” On Monday, Russia stopped its own shipments of anthracite coal to Ukraine. Ukraine’s stocks are so low that many power plants have shut down. About 400,000 tons are to come this month by ship, largely from the US.
The volume of transit of oil products through Ukraine has decreased as of the middle of November. In January-October 2021, the volume of transit of petroleum products decreased by 44% to 37,800 tons compared to the same
54 UKRAINE Country Report December 2021 www.intellinews.com