Ukraine’s state gas company, Ukrtransgaz, is preparing to transport an additional 1.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year from Romania in order to to replace gas from Russia. Ukraine’s current supply contract with Russia expires at the end of 2019.
The fuel will come via Moldova, with both Ukrtransgaz and Moldovagaz agreeing to modernise the border gas metering stations of Grebeniki (in Ukraine) and Kaushany (in Moldova) to operate in reverse mode.
The project is of strategic importance: by diversifying gas supply routes, both states hope to ensure an uninterrupted supply of gas to customers.
Currently, Russia supplies one-third of Europe’s natural gas and delivers it through three pipelines, one through Belarus and Poland, another through Ukraine and Slovakia, and through Nord Stream 1. As soon as Moscow’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline network begins its operations, the amount of gas sent to Europe through Ukraine will be reduced, and many countries will have to store higher volumes of gas in underground storage facilities ahead of winter.
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