Due to Gazprom, which was trying to limit Ukraine's ability to import gas from the EU, the country in 2014 could not import gas via a virtual reverse system, the official said. Thus, Ukraine had to build a new interconnector, namely the Vojany-Uzhgorod pipeline, to start gas supplies from Slovakia, which allowed it to withstand and avoid total dependence on Gazprom.
"We needed to sign a direct agreement with the Slovak GTS operator and achieve the realization of this opportunity [a virtual natural gas reverse flow] under the agreement. Relevant changes have been made to Ukrainian legislation. We thank the [National Energy and Utilities Regulation Commission] NEURC for their support! Amendments to the Customs Code have been made as well. But most importantly, we managed to remove Gazprom from our GMSs [gas measuring stations] on the country's western borders, and now we completely control our relations with European GTS operators," he added.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine launched a virtual natural gas reverse flow from Poland in late January 2020. Ukraine in 2019 boosted natural gas imports by 34.4%, or by 3.65 billion cu m (bcm), up to 14.25 bcm. In particular, 9.15 bcm of gas was imported via the Slovak gas transport corridor, while 1.4 bcm and 3.67 bcm was shipped from Poland and Hungary, respectively.
