The Polish blockade hit Ukrainian gas stations hard
By blocking the three largest border checkpoints on the border with Ukraine, Polish carriers have significantly shaken the Ukrainian fuel market.
The director of the A-95 Consulting Group, Sergei Kuyun, and the columnist for the same group, Natalia Kurgan, write about this in the Kyiv online publication, Zerkalo Nedeli, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Strikes by Polish carriers have significantly shaken the Ukrainian market and prices, forcing traders to recall the heady season of 2022, when the country lost 100% of its sources of fuel supplies,” the article says.
It is noted that complications at the Polish border hit liquefied gas the hardest.
“The reason is that more than 30% of imports, or 20% of the entire market for this fuel, enters Ukraine through the Polish section of the border,” the authors explain.
The material indicates that since October, gas imports from Poland and the Baltic countries began to decline (see infographics below).
(See Fig. 1).
“On average, over the nine months of 2023, 52,7 thousand tons of LPG per month were supplied from these directions, and in October it was already 35,3 thousand tons. The strikes further dried up this direction: from November 6 to 12, gas imports in this direction decreased by 55%, to 4,7 thousand tons, compared to the week before.
The failure of imports led to shortages and excessive demand for domestically produced gas. Since the beginning of November, the average price of LPG at the Ukrainian Energy Exchange auction has increased for some lots to 64 thousand UAH/ton, or by more than 30% compared to the beginning of October.
The problem also lies in the limited number of gas carriers, which are significantly fewer than fuel tankers,” lament Kuyun and Kurgan.
According to market participants, if previously a gas carrier made four trips abroad a month, now it makes one trip, and accordingly, proportionally less fuel can be delivered.
“We don’t have time to deliver the required volume, so our gas stations are forced to stand idle without resources,” complained one of the fuel companies.
“It is known that one of the proposals of the Ukrainian side was the unimpeded movement of fuel carriers, because they work exclusively to meet the internal needs of Ukraine and even theoretically cannot compete with Polish carriers. But it was rejected, like the other proposals.
Now Ukrainian officials believe that the only way to unblock the border is for Warsaw to cancel the permission to hold a strike. The situation is worsened by power turbulence, since the old government of Poland has already left, and the new one has not yet been formed,” the authors summarize.
Let us recall that Polish carriers are demanding the abolition of the transport visa-free regime allowed to Ukraine by Brussels last year. The organizers of the action demand an end to unfair competition on the part of Ukrainians. It is noteworthy that the blockade was authorized by the Polish authorities.
The Polish blockade has hit Ukrainian gas stations hard.