Ukraine Transits Less Russian Gas
Russian pipeline gas monopoly exporter Gazprom cut transit through Ukraine by 7.1% on year to 86.8bn Russian m³ in 2018, according to data from transmission system operator Ukrtransgaz. Some 83.84bn m3 went to Europe (7.6% year on year drop) and 2.94bn m3 to Moldova (8.6% down). Gazprom also cut transit through Ukraine in December by 4.3% to 7.6 bm m³ year on year.
Recently Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said the company sold 201bn Russian m3 (slightly less than standard m3) in 2018, hitting an absolute record for gas exports to Europe for the third time in a row. The volume was 194.4bn m3 in 2017. Dutch output has fallen, although LNG imports rose sharply in Q4 compared with Q4 in 2017.
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LNG imports to NW Europe (mn metric tons)
(Source: Energy Aspects)
Ukrtransgaz says that domestic gas production level increased only 0.3% in 2018 to 20.89bn m3, against 4% year-on-year growth in 2017.
Ukrgazvydobuvannya produced 15.42bn m3 (+ 1.2% year on year); Ukrnafta about 1.08bn m3 (-2.1% year on year); and other companies some 4.39bn m3 (-2% year on year). Ukraine used 0.4% more gas in 2018, totalling 28.5bn m3.
Ukraine managed without buying gas directly from Gazprom for the fourth year, instead importing 10.6bn m3 of what would have been mostly Russian molecules from Slovakia, Hungary and Poland in 2018, which accounted for 61%, 32% and 7% of imports respectively. Ukrtransgaz, 100% owned by Naftogaz, operates a system of trunk gas pipelines and 12 underground gas storage facilities of the country with a total capacity of 31bn m3.
Gazprom completed its offshore TurkStream line November 19, while NordStream 2 development is still awaitingthe go-ahead to cross into Danish territorial waters. The projects have a total capacity of 86.5bn m³/yr total capacity and aim to cut transit through Ukraine.