Ukraine transported a third less Russian gas than European countries buy. The company that operates the gas pipeline network in the former Soviet republic stated that the decision was due to reasons of force majeure after Russian Army invasion. Moscow, for its part, defended itself and said that it was fulfilling the obligations agreed upon with its trading partners.
It is the first time gas supplies from Russia to Europe have been affected by the war in Ukraine since the conflict broke out in February. According to the Ukrainian state company, a force majeure cause makes it impossible to continue transporting gas through that point on the border with Russia, as well as the Novopskov compression station, both located in the Lugansk province, in eastern Ukraine and currently under Russian occupation. In this sense, the gas network operating company assured that Moscow has no operational or technological control over the facilities in occupied territory.
“The actions of the occupiers led to the interruption of gas transit through the Sojranivka connection point,” announced the company in a statement in which it reported interference in technical processes. He also denounced “unauthorized gas extractions” that put the country’s gas transportation system at risk. Through that station 32.6 million cubic meters of gas passed per day: a third of the total that kyiv transports to Europe, GTSOU said. On the other hand, the Ukrainian state company pointed out that Gazprom “turned off the tap” and also assured that Russia had redirected the gas destined to transit through Ukraine to the separatist republics in the east.
The Kremlin, for its part, stressed today that Russia is a reliable supplier and that it fulfills its contractual obligations, “Russia has always reliably fulfilled and intends to fulfill contractual obligations”Russian government spokesman Dmitri Peskov said at a news conference.
Meanwhile, the Russian energy consortium, Gazprom, confirmed having received a notification from Ukraine where the country reported that it would stop the transit of gas to Europe through the Sokhranivka interconnector as of May 11. But he said it was not technologically possible to shift gas transfers to Ukraine to a new entry point, as GTSOU is proposing. The Ukrainian company had promised to temporarily redirect all supplies through another crossing point in the north, Sudzha, in order to “fully fulfill its transit obligations with European partners.”
Germany has already reported the first drop in the flow of Russian gas. The German state energy agency announced that the volume of Russian gas supplied to Germany through one of the main gas pipelines through Ukraine has fallen by 25 percent since Tuesday. “Due to reduced transit, gas volumes to Germany via Ukraine [a través del gasoducto Megal] have decreased by 25% compared to Tuesday,” he said on his website.
Gazsprom added that it saw no evidence of force majeure or obstacles to continuing as before and that it was fulfilling all obligations to gas buyers in Europe.