Brussels, 23/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 23 January, the European Commission announced that from 24 January Ukraine will be able to increase its imports of gas from the EU thanks to an increase in Slovakia's reverse gas flow capacities to Ukraine - which will reportedly rise from 31.5 million to 40 million cubic metres per day.
European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic hailed “an important step on the way to further connect Ukraine to the European internal energy market”. “The increase of gas transport from the European Union to Ukraine demonstrates our solidarity with our neighbouring countries. Energy security in particular in Central East and South East Europe and Ukraine is inadvisable and of paramount importance for the European Commission”, he added. Hailing this move from Bratislava, Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said he hoped the additional measures would enable these flows to reach 100 billion cubic metres per year.
After long negotiations, the gas transmission system operators of Slovakia and Ukraine - Eustream and Ukrtransgaz respectively - concluded a memorandum of understanding at the end of April, according to which Western suppliers can deliver gas to Ukraine via the Vojany gas reserve pipeline, which up to now has not been used. Slovakia's gas flows to Ukraine started on 1 September.
The EU's reverse gas flows to Ukraine also follow two other routes - from Poland, for a capacity of 4 million cubic metres per day on a so-called interruptible basis (these capacities have not been used since the beginning of 2015); and from Hungary, for a capacity of 16 million cubic metres per day, also on a so-called interruptible basis (these supplies were stopped on 25 September but resumed on 10 January and currently stand at 3 million cubic metres per day).
Nearly 5 billion cubic metres of gas was sent from the EU to Ukraine in 2014. (EH)