Ukraine stops shipping a large amount of gas from Russia to Europe

Gas pipeline at Gazprom’s Atamanskaya compression station outside the town of Svobodny, in Amur Oblast, Russia reuters

Reuters quoted the announcement from GTSOU, the company that operates the gas system of Ukrainesaid it will stop gas passing through the Sokhranivka measuring station from May 11 due to “force majeure”.

The company GTSOU said it was unable to operate the Novopskov air compressor station due to “force intervention”. Russia Therefore, in order to fulfill its “gas transportation obligations with its European partners”, GTSOU will “temporarily transfer gas” to the Sudzha station located in the territory controlled by Ukraine. .

Novopskov Compressor Station is located in the Oblast Luhanskeastern Ukraine was controlled by Russian troops and separatist forces shortly after Moscow start the campaign military especially in February.

This is the first compressed air station in the Ukrainian gas transit system in the Luhansk province. This route transports about 32.6 million m³ gas per day, or one-third of Russia’s gas, is shipped to Europe through Ukraine, GTSOU said. Ukraine is still Russia’s main gas transit route to Europe.

According to GTSOU CEO Sergiy Makogon, Russian forces have begun controlling gas transit through Ukraine and delivering gas to two breakaway regions in the east of the country. However, Mr. Makogon did not give evidence.

Russian gas company Gazprom said it had received a notice from Ukraine that it would stop transporting gas to Europe through the Sokhranivka measuring station from 07 o’clock (local time) on May 11.

Gazprom stated that “in terms of technology”, the company is not able to transfer the entire current gas flow to the Sudzha measuring station further west as suggested by GTSOU.

Gazprom also said that it did not see evidence of force majeure or obstacles in operating the pipelines as before, and added that it is meeting all obligations to customers buying gas in the country. Europe.

Reuters quoted Yuriy Vitrenko, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ukraine’s state energy company Naftogaz, as saying that Ukraine’s cessation of transportation of Russian natural gas through the Sokhranivka pipeline would not affect Ukraine’s domestic market.

Meanwhile, the state gas company Moldovathe country on Ukraine’s western border, said it had not received any notice from GTSOU or Gazprom that supplies would be disrupted.