"US LNG is coming to Ukraine," the embassy wrote on Twitter. "Another step in helping Ukraine achieve energy independence, a ship carrying LNG destined for Ukraine arrived yesterday at Swinoujscie," it said.
The buyer of the gas is private trading company Energy Resources of Ukraine, which plans to inject the gas - totaling 90 million cu m - into Ukrainian gas storage in the near future, the company said.
"While others are planning, we do," ERU said in a statement. "The transatlantic gas supply corridor is working. US LNG for Ukraine arrived at Swinoujscie on November 19."
The company said that through effective market mechanisms, LNG can be purchased at affordable prices. "For Ukraine, LNG can become one of the elements of building energy independence," ERU said.
Import capacity
Ukraine, which relied on Russian gas for decades, suspended imports of Russian gas in November 2015, and currently depends on imports from Europe.
Ukraine is capable of importing about 1.5 Bcm/year of gas from Poland and this capacity is set to be expanded to 5 Bcm/year in 2020. The shipment comes as relations between Gazprom and Naftogaz remain tense with no progress on gas transit talks.
Ukraine accumulated 21.78 Bcm of gas in its underground gas storage facilities as of November 1, a record amount over the past 10 years, amid fears of a possible disruption in supplies of Russian gas via Ukraine to Europe from 2020.
To read the news in Russian.
Author: Alexander Bor