Ukrainian GTS Operator: Ukraine cuts natural gas transit by 13% to 21.7 bln m3 in H1

Kiev, July 8 - Neftegaz.RU. In the 1^st half of 2021, Ukraine cut the natural gas transit by 12.97% year over year to 21.67 billion m³, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
The Ukrainian Gas Transport System Operator (GTSO) stated:

• In June, the natural gas transit via the Ukrainian GTS towards countries of Europe made 3.72 billion m³, which is almost the same with the May indicators
• The average daily transit made 124 million m³

According to the report, Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom utilizes all the previously-booked capacity and has not shown its interest in additional transit capacity despite a record-breaking growth of natural gas prices on the European gas markets.

Besides, the Ukrainian GTSO noted that on July 5, 2021, additional capacity was not booked at the annual auctions at GSA Platform and Regional Booking Platform for the 2021-2022 gas year (the period from October 1, 2021, to September 30, 2022).

The company’s Director General S.Makogon said:

• The Ukrainian GTSO is an EU countries’ reliable partner and is ready to boost the gas transit via the territory of Ukraine
• It offers additional facilities to satisfy the current demand for gas in Europe
• If Gazprom cannot satisfy the gas demand, other Russian and Central Asian gas producers should be let use Ukrainian and Russian GTS to transit the gas to the EU

According to Makogon, the EU should estimate Gazprom’s actions and stop violations by its dominating market position aimed at approval to the Nord Stream-2 project.
In 2020, Ukraine cut natural gas transit via its GTS towards Europe by 38% year over year to 55.8 billion m³.