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shortage on the market, but it is more accurate to say that there is a shortage of gas supply available for purchase on the market, though physically there is sufficient volume.
The EU has increased the import of Russian gas, and Hungary is preparing to use the Turkish Stream for this. According to Energy Intelligence, Russian pipeline gas exports to Europe continued their recent upward trend in the first half of August. And average daily flows reached the highest level since August 2022. Cumulative flows through the two available gas pipeline routes from Russia to Europe (without Turkey) in the first half of August increased by 6% compared to the first half of July - up to 1.36 billion cubic meters. At the same time, Hungary seeks to diversify the supplies that come to the country in transit through Ukraine using the Turkish Stream, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, Peter Sijarto. "It is crucial to have the Turkish Stream gas pipeline because it has a throughput capacity of 8.5 billion cubic meters towards Hungary, and it can completely take the entire volume of gas coming from Russia under a long-term contract," Szijarto said. Hungary receives gas from Russia under a 15-year contract signed in 2021.
Ukraine will not renew the contract for the transit of Russian gas to the EU after 2024. Ukraine has warned Austria that it does not plan to extend the gas transit contract, DW economic expert Andriy Gurkov said. He notes that the Ukrainian route mainly serves Austria, with some small gas volumes that ship to Hungary and Italy. Therefore, the Austrian OMV company has already reserved transit capacity to supply Norwegian gas and LNG and gas from Italian terminals. Moreover, the Austrian company decided to develop another gas mining field in the Romanian Black Sea territory. In December 2019, Naftogaz of Ukraine and the Operator of the GTS of Ukraine and Gazprom signed an agreement to transit Russian gas to Europe through Ukrainian territory beginning in 2020. According to this contract, the volume of transit in 2020 was 65 billion cubic meters, and in 2021-2024, 40 billion cubic meters.
EU traders have pumped 600 million cubic meters of gas into Ukraine's underground storage. Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko noted that Ukraine's storage facilities are the largest in Europe, with a total volume of more than 30 billion cubic meters and with 15 billion cubic meters still available for European partners. According to the WSJ, by the start of the heating season, there will be roughly 3.5 billion cubic meters of foreign traders' gas in underground storage facilities in Ukraine. For them, this is a risk, but at the same time, an opportunity to make profits. Since storage facilities in the EU are already 89.75% full against a target of 90% on November 1, prices may skyrocket, as there simply will be nowhere to store the newly purchased gas. Therefore, traders can pump cheap gas into Ukrainian UGSs and sell it at higher rates when prices rise. According to the publication's calculations, the potential profit from 3.5 billion cubic meters can amount to $370M.
9.1.2 Automotive sector news
The demand for electric cars in Ukraine has jumped. As the Ukravtoprom association reported, in July 3,464 vehicles from abroad with battery power sources were registered in Ukraine, including 586 new and 2,878 used vehicles. The models with the greatest demand were: (new) Volkswagen ID.4, Volkswagen ID.6, FAW Toyota BZ4X, Honda E, and Honda M-NV; (used) Nissan Leaf, Volkswagen e-Golf, Tesla Model 3, Tesla Model Y, and Renault
64 UKRAINE Country Report September 2023 www.intellinews.com