Europe is ready to discuss replacing Ukrainian gas transit with Turkish

Moscow – Kyiv, January 15 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Shtamm) – Gazprom has once again made it bluntly clear that it will abandon gas transit through Ukraine by 2020, and has suggested that Europe hurry to build pipelines to receive gas via Turkey. This appears to be a bluff, Kommersant writes : the EU is unlikely to be willing to spend money on new pipelines from Turkey. Furthermore, the West wants Moscow to remain hooked on Ukraine's transit system, sponsoring a hostile regime. However, Brussels is still willing to discuss a new route.

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The first visit to Russia of the new European energy negotiator, EC Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, gave a formal start to a new round of gas negotiations, the publication writes.

Gazprom is going to completely abandon transit through Ukraine by 2020, transferring volumes to the Turkish Stream - this is how the new pipe will be named in accordance with the wishes of Turkish President Recep Erdogan. By this point, the newspaper recalls, the Europeans should build gas pipelines that would allow them to take Russian gas in western Turkey, and not in Central Europe, as now. “Turkish Stream is the only route through which 63 billion cubic meters of Russian gas can be supplied, currently transiting through Ukraine; there are no other options,” said Alexey Miller. According to him, Europeans must start building gas pipelines “right today,” otherwise “these volumes of gas may end up in other markets.”

This was not news for Shefovich, but he considered it necessary to express surprise and made it clear that Gazprom’s idea of ​​selling 50 billion cubic meters of gas to Europeans in western Turkey “is unlikely to work.” According to him, Gazprom, under contracts, must deliver gas to certain delivery points in Europe. This cannot yet be done from a hub in western Turkey. If the EU does not agree to build additional gas pipelines and Gazprom stops transit through Ukraine, the monopoly will violate contractual obligations by more than 40 billion cubic meters per year.

According to the publication’s interlocutors in the industry, Mr. Miller’s threat to transfer gas to “other markets” looks like a bluff: the company does not have the opportunity to sell these 40 billion cubic meters on an alternative market. But the EU does not want to spend money on new pipes and would like to preserve Ukrainian transit in order to force the Russian Federation to sponsor a hostile state.

However, the European Commission is ready to discuss the construction of new pipes, said Maros Sefcovic.