Kyiv, January 16 (Interfax) - The transit request filed by Gazprom on January 16 is in agreement with a letter from the Ukrainian dispatcher about Ukrtransgaz' consent to fulfill it, published by the Russian company the day earlier, a company source told Interfax.
It was reported that on Thursday, Gazprom said that the Ukrainian dispatcher reported its technical preparedness to receive 99.2 million cubic meters of gas per day via Sudzha, as Gazprom has been requesting over the last few days, but Ukraine kept refusing to take this gas at the designated point.
The Ukrainian dispatcher had suggested to changing the route by sending 41.9 million cubic meters per day instead of 77 million cubic meters proposed by Gazprom to the Orlivka gas metering station and to Moldova, and 57.3 million cubic meters per day instead of 22.2 million cubic meters as proposed by Gazprom to the Uzhgorod gas metering station.
However, after that information appeared, Ukrainian national oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy said it was unprepared for partial acceptance of the Russian gas and its transportation to European consumers.
Naftogaz said that the Ukrainian gas transportation system has been geared to domestic market operations since the total shutoff of Russian deliveries. A resumption of transit will require conclusion of a technical agreement that sets out the interaction between the Russian and Ukrainian pipeline systems.
A Naftogaz representative told Interfax previously that Ukrtransgaz’s unified dispatching department had once again confirmed Ukraine’s position concerning the possibility of transiting no less than 296 million cubic meters of Russian gas a day to importing countries.
Gazprom announced that transit toward Ukraine had resumed on January 13 with an initial delivery of 76.6 million cubic meters to the Orlivka station (Odesa region) and Moldova via the Sudzha station in Kursk region. But Ukraine said the delivery was technically impossible since the Ukrainian gas transportation system had been operating autonomously since Russia turned off the gas on January 6-7, with some pipeline segments being operating in reverse (west to east).
In the following two days Gazprom augmented its transit request by 22 million cubic meters a day through the Sudzha station for the Uzhgorod station. Naftogaz once again refused, citing technicalities, and proposed modifying the route by sending 62.2 million cubic meters a day through the Pisarevka station and 36.6 million cubic meters a day through Valuyki.
But Gazprom says Valuyki and Pisarevka are unsuitable for deliveries of transit gas through Ukraine. There is currently no contract on deliveries of Russian gas to Ukraine and the Valuyki station is geared for delivering gas to Ukrainian consumers, not for exports to Europe.
