Page 60 - UKRRptSept19

9.0 Industry & Sectors 9.1 Sector news
9.1.1 Oil & gas sector news
Zelenskiy signs natural gas deal during two-day Poland visit
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a regional natural gas deal security involving Poland and the US on August 31, the first of a two-day working visit to Warsaw. The agreement creates opportunities for Ukraine to diversify its gas supplies to receive liquefied natural gas from the Swinoujscie LNG terminal in Poland, as well as Poland’s Baltic Pipe pipeline from Norway. Poland can supply 1.5 bcm in gas at the moment, which could grow to 6 bcm by 2021, according to the agreement, as reported by the polskieradio.pl news site. Ukraine’s involvement in gas purchases in Poland creates the possibility to receive liquefied gas from the US, or enable Ukraine to buy gas from the Polish state monopoly, said Piotr Naimski, Polish deputy minister of economy. Also addressing reporters that day, US Energy Secretary Rick Perry confirmed the opportunity to sell liquefied gas to Ukraine – with Poland as an intermediary – to reduce dependence on Russia. During his meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda on August 31, Zelenskiy mentioned the need for transport licenses, simplifying the transit of goods and people across the border, raising quotas for Ukrainian carriers transiting Poland, improving the work of Ukrainian border officials, creating more crossings along their mutual border and building the Via Carpatia trans-European highway, as reported by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency. In the second day of his working visit on September 1, Zelenskiy met with Polish businessmen to encourage their investment, assuring them of further reforms in the judicial and law enforcement system. The same day, Zelenskiy met with US Vice President Mike Pence during commemorations of the 80-year anniversary of the start of World War Two. Pence reiterated US support for Ukraine’s security and territorial integrity.
US liquefied natural gas will help Poland quadruple its gas exports to Ukraine in two years, to 6 billion cubic meters. Last year, Ukraine imported 10.4 bcm paying $3.12 billion. Most of this was Russian gas, bought from European traders, that either made a round trip through Slovakia or Poland or was taken out of the pipeline as it crossed Ukraine and swapped for gas bought in Europe. Piotr Woźniak, president of PGNiG management board, said: “Currently, the only limitation in the development of exports to Ukraine on an even larger scale is the capacity of gas pipelines in Poland in the direction of Silesia–Podkarpacie. We expect the capacity of these gas pipelines to be expanded by 2021 at the latest.” The first US gas will flow to Ukraine this winter. A shipload of US LNG earmarked for Ukraine is to be unloaded in November in Świnoujście, according to a deal signed last week by Kyiv’s Energy Resources of Ukraine and Polish Oil and Gas Company, or PGNiG. After gasification, the US gas will be injected into the Polish pipeline system and shipped 1,000 km to the southeast, to the Hermanowice interconnector point, on the Lviv region border.
60 UKRAINE Country Report September 2019 www.intellinews.com