Ukraine unlocks gas imports from Romania
Ukraine and Romania have signed an interconnection agreement which will come into effect on January 1, 2020, the Operator of the Gas Transportation System of Ukraine (OGTSU), one of the signatories, announced on its website. Romania was represented by the company Transgaz.
The negotiations lasted more than three years, with mediation from the European Commission and the involvement of the operators of Bulgaria, Greece and Moldova.
The agreement will make it possible to freely transport gas to Ukraine and Moldova from Southern Europe and Turkey. As of January 1, the capacity at the Isakcha1-Orlovka1 point will be 17.8 million cubic meters per day towards Romania, and 15.8 million towards Ukraine.
“This decision is historic and extremely important, because it makes it possible to establish an additional route for importing gas to Ukraine, first and foremost, to provide gas to Moldova’s consumers and Ukraine’s border consumers in the Odessa region. This will make it possible to get through the winter smoothly, even in the event of a possible cessation of gas transit from Russia,” explained OGTSU director general Serhiy Makohon.
The previous agreement between the gas transportation system operators of Ukraine (previously it was UkrTransGaz) and Romania did not allow for gas to be transported in the reverse direction, and did not comply with European cooperation regulations due to the contract that existed with Gazprom.
The new agreement is also important to Moldova, which is dependent on the Ukrainian gas transportation system.
In 2018, Ukraine imported 10.59 billion cubic meters of gas – 6.46 billion from Slovakia, 3.43 billion from Hungary, and 695.1 million from Poland.