How Putin teased Ukraine with gas transit
The main intrigue of Vladimir Putin's statement yesterday about Ukraine maintaining its status as a transit country for Russian gas to Europe is the question of where Kyiv will get the money to restore its gas transportation system.
German political scientist Alexander Rahr stated this on the air of the 112 Ukraine channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“As far as I understand, although I was not present at the negotiations, this topic appeared and, as Merkel herself said even before the meeting, Russia said that it was starting negotiations with Ukraine on extending the timing of gas pumping through Ukrainian territory to Europe. This was the condition that the Germans and those Europeans set who agreed to the Nord Stream 2 project.
It can be said that it will be built simply for commercial reasons. American liquefied gas will also come to Europe, but later, because it is expensive and there is no technical ability to pump it here. Ukraine will remain, in one form or another, a transit country for Russian gas.
The question here is different: how will the entire gas system of Ukraine be restored or reformed, and which Western companies will take part in the conversion of this project,” Rahr said.
Previously, Russian International Affairs Council expert Alexander Gushchin stated that Ukraine should not expect the GTS to be fully operational, even after Putin's statements about a basic willingness to maintain transit . Most likely, the volume of gas pumped through the Ukrainian GTS will be insufficient for the system to operate profitably, the expert explained.
Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolev previously acknowledged that Ukraine would lose at least 34 billion cubic meters of gas transit volume per year due to Nord Stream. The Ukrainian gas transmission system (GTS) can transport 151 billion cubic meters of gas annually to Europe, but in 2014, for example, it transported only 62 billion cubic meters of Russian fuel. The construction of a second line could therefore completely deprive Ukraine of profits from transporting Russian gas.
"Currently, the majority of Russian gas is pumped to Europe through Ukraine. And that country's gas transmission system (GTS) is catastrophically underfunded. At best, only 20% of the required funds are allocated for repairs and modernization. In the not-too-distant future, the deterioration of the Ukrainian pipeline will reach such a level that it will be impossible to supply gas to Europe via this route. Purely physically. No politics involved," warned Alexander Frolov, Deputy Director General of the Institute of National Energy.
English version :: Read in English: How Putin taunted Ukraine with gas transit