Page 15 - FSUOGM Week 44

FSUOGM PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM

Russian gas transit via Ukraine

down 38.4% this year

UKRAINE RUSSIAN gas transit through Ukraine’s pipeline Ukraine started the winter heating season at
system is down 38.4% this year, to 45bn cubic the end of October with natural gas reserves at a
meters, Sergiy Makogon, head of Ukraine’s Gas record 28.4bn cubic meters. And today’s level is
Transmission System Operator, wrote on his 30% above the level of this time last year, also a
Facebook page on November 2. record, reports Naftogaz.
At this rate, Ukraine will move 55-56bcm With a total storage capacity of 31mnbcm,
this year, about 15% below the 65bcm amount Ukraine’s underground reservoirs are 92% full,
contracted with Gazprom for this year in a new also a record. In the seven months since Naftogaz
transit deal signed in December 2019 at the last started storing gas last spring, the state company
minute. increased stocks by 80%.
Under the new five-year contract Gazprom Europe’s gas glut this summer benefitted
promises to pay for shipping the full amount, Ukraine as 79 EU traders used Ukraine’s new
whether it is shipped or not, in a take-or-pay duty free warehouse regime to store gas in 12
deal. underground reservoirs.
Gazprom booked more capacity on Ukraine’s This autumn, gas stored in this customs
pipelines this fall, Andriy Kobolyev, Naftogaz’s regime hit 11bcm, triple the level of 2017.
chief executive, told Reuters last week in Wash- With the five largest reservoirs within 160
ington. Kobolyev reads this as Gazprom reacting km of Hungary, Ukraine supplied Hungary
to US sanctions pressuring the Nord Stream 2 with a record 9bcm this year. “Thanks to
gas pipeline project, the stalled Russia-Germany market reform, Ukraine became Europe’s
trans-Baltic direct link. indisputable storage hub in 2020 as mar-
The increase in gas transit is good news for kets were facing suppressed demand linked
Ukraine’s national gas company Naftogaz as a to the pandemic and an underlying supply
gas glut this year means it has built up significant overhang,” writes Aura Sabadus, a senior
stores of gas in its tanks – the largest in the For- energy journalist for London’s Independent
mer Soviet Union (FSU) and an infrastructural Commodity Intelligence Services, or ICIS, as
legacy of the old pre-independency system. cited by UBN. ™

Gazprom starts on second

Power of Siberia section

RUSSIA RUSSIA’S Gazprom has broken ground on the under the River Lena. There are no settlements
next stage of the Power of Siberia pipeline, the or roads along its route.
The cost of the section state gas firm announced on November 2. Power of Siberia began pumping gas to China
is estimated by Work began in September on the 803-km in December and before the pandemic, ship-
Gazprom at $3.5bn. stretch of Power of Siberia linking the Chayan- ments were expected to reach 5bn cubic metres
dinskoye gas field in Yakutia with the Kovykt- (bcm) in 2020. Supplies are scheduled to ramp
inskoye field in Irkutsk. Chayandinskoye is up to 10 bcm in 2021 and 15 bcm in 2022, before
currently the only Russian field that delivers gas plateauing at 38 bcm in 2025.
to China via pipeline, but once the new section is China’s CNPC, which struck a $400bn deal
complete, Kovyktinskoye will be able to provide to buy Power of Siberia's gas in 2014, has indi-
supplies as well. cated that the original plan is still being followed,
The cost of building the Kovyktin- despite the impact of the pandemic on Chinese
skoye-Chayandinskoye section is estimated by gas demand earlier this year. The company said
Gazprom at RUB280bn ($3.5bn). The company on November 3 it expected to double Power of
reportedly hired Stroytransneftegaz as a contrac- Siberia purchases to 28mn cubic metres per day
tor to build the line in June. in January, equivalent to 10.22 bcm per year.
The pipeline will traverse rough terrain, char- Chinese gas demand is expected to grow by
acterised by permafrost, tectonic faults, moun- 10% this winter, versus 0.3% last winter, as its
tains, forests and swamps. It will also have to pass economic recovery continues. ™

Week 44 04•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P15