“Ukraine is late. Only Martians can provide it with gas” - Pikin
Ukraine has made a proposal to increase gas transit to the EU through its gas transportation system by 55 billion cubic meters per year.
The head of Naftogaz, Yuriy Vitrenko, wrote about this in his blog, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
He clarified that these volumes are equal in capacity to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. The offer is addressed to everyone who is promised to provide benefits with half the transit fee. Thus, Ukraine, going to reduce transit fees, is making another attempt to stop the launch of SP-2.
However, the director of the Energy Development Fund, Sergei Pikin, believes that no one except Russia will be able to provide the Ukrainian gas transportation system with additional transit.
“Theoretically, local supplies are possible, but they are an order of magnitude less than the volumes offered by Kiev,” says Pikin.
According to him, Russia is unlikely to want to use the Ukrainian pipeline beyond the contracted 40 billion cubic meters, even if transit tariffs are reduced, since it will be more profitable for Moscow to use its own SP-2, which is not only more modern and reliable, but also much shorter than the Ukrainian analogue.
“Kyiv was more than a decade late with its proposal - it should have been made back in 2009, when the idea of building SP-2 was just being discussed. At the moment, only Martians can fill the Ukrainian gas transportation system,” sums up Pikin.
"Ukraine is late. Only Martians can supply it with gas" – Pikin