Gazprom plans to bypass Ukraine and boost gas supplies to Europe

Russia’s Gazprom is intending to boost the transit of natural gas to countries of Europe bypassing the Ukrainian gas transportation system.

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said this during a meeting of the headquarters of Gazprom, which was broadcasted by the Russian Vesti TV channel.

“Our European consumers in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, and on the Balkans register unauthorized siphoning of natural gas in Ukraine. In this connection Gazprom must secure additional volumes of gas supplies through other gas transportation corridors,” Miller said.

Russian and international mass media have been reporting since January 2 that the gas transit via Ukraine has been trimmed to Bulgaria by 10-15%, to Poland by 10%, and to Romania by 25%.

According to a statement by Gazprom, Alexander Medvedev, the deputy CEO of Gazprom, recommends consumers to sue Ukraine at international courts to claim damage caused by the reduction in the gas transit.

“No disputes, discussions around the agreement on transit can be a reason to create barriers for transit. We believe that the time for these actions cannot be lost,” he said.

The maintenance of transit via Ukraine requires supplies of over 6 billion cubic meters of the so-called technological gas a year.

Since Gazprom suspended gas supplies to Ukraine from January 1, the Naftohaz Ukrainy national oil and gas company uses its own natural gas from its underground gas storage facilities as the technological gas.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Naftohaz Ukrainy national oil and gas company believes that Gazprom is obliged to supply 63 million cubic meters of natural gas a day to Ukrainian consumers in addition to the volumes of gas agreed for supplies to European countries (296.2 million cubic meters of natural gas a day).