Status: 05/11/2022 06:49 a.m
Due to the war, Ukraine wants to cut gas transit through the Luhansk region to Europe. The Russian occupation makes it impossible to forward gas to distribution stations, the network operator said.
As of this morning, Ukraine will stop transiting Russian gas in the Luhansk region in the east of the country due to the war. As a result, up to 32.6 million cubic meters of gas per day were lost, the Ukrainian gas network operator announced. That is almost a third of the maximum amount that can be transported to Europe via Ukraine every day.
Due to the Russian occupation, it had become impossible to control the Sochranivka point and the Novopskov compressor station, it said. The operator referred to a case of “force majeure”. Sokhranivka is part of the Soyuz pipeline, which runs from the Russian region of Orenburg to Uzhhorod in Ukraine.
The Ukrainians indicated that the Russians recently disrupted the operation of the plants. The head of the Ukrainian energy supplier Naftogaz, Yuriy Vitrenko, recently warned the editorial network Germany (RND) that the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine to Western Europe could be endangered if Russia were to continue its attacks on the Ukrainian infrastructure.
Gazprom: diversion not possible
Russia’s energy giant Gazprom, which recently pumped almost 100 million cubic meters of gas a day through Ukraine towards Europe, said it had received “no confirmation of any force majeure circumstances.” The Ukrainians have been working “undisturbed” in Sochranivka in recent weeks.
It is technically not possible to divert the deliveries that are now no longer available via other routes, said spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov, according to the Interfax agency. Gazprom once again emphasized that it will fulfill all its obligations to European customers.
Germany’s dependency is declining
The contractual maximum capacity for Ukrainian gas transit to Europe is 109 million cubic meters per day. The main route for Russian gas to Europe, however, is the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1. According to Russian information, 60 billion cubic meters of gas per year ran through Nord Stream 1 to Europe.
Germany is heavily dependent on Russian gas. Demands for a gas embargo, for example, are therefore very controversial. According to the latest information from the Economics Ministry, Germany’s dependence on Russian gas has fallen from 55 percent to around 35 percent since the beginning of the war.