Brussels, 24/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 23 June, the Ukrainian government denounced the blocking of inverse gas flows from Slovakia to Ukraine at the Uzhgorod/Velke Kapusany interconnection point, due to a legacy contract between the Slovakian gas transport network manager Eustream and the Russian energy company, Gazprom. This contract ensures that the latter has exclusive use of this interconnection point.
In a letter addressed to the respective presidents of the European Council and European Commission, Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker, the Ukrainian Prime Minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, stated: “Consequently, the Ukrainian and European energy companies cannot use this connection, which has a total capacity of more than 90 billion m³ a year in both directions. The legacy contract between Eustream and Gazprom is in direct violation of EU rules and the Treaty responsible for creating the Energy Community”.
Ukraine is also accusing Gazprom (which controls all gas flows from the Uzhgorod/Velke Kapusany gas pipelines in Ukraine) of obstructing the activities of the Ukrainian network operator Ukrtransgaz, by refusing to supply it with “exporter codes”.
Following a number of bitter arguments, operators from the Eustream network and its Ukrainian counterpart, Ukrtransgaz, concluded a memorandum of understanding in April 2014 that would allow Western gas suppliers to provide gas to the Ukraine via the Vojany reserve gas pipeline that had hitherto not been used. Gas flows from Slovakia to Ukraine through this route began on 1 September in the same year (see EUROPE 11237).
In his letter to the EU leaders, Yatsenyuk said: “Crucial inverse gas flows from Slovakia would help Ukraine end its dependency on Gazprom and would possibly lead to importing all of its gas from the EU. This would reduce tension and the risk of gas supply cuts for both Ukraine and the EU”.
In its reply on Wednesday 24 June, the Slovakian gas operator, Eustream, refuted Ukraine's complaint and explained that gas supplies from the Velke Kapusany transit point were not governed by the contracts mentioned by Ukraine but by technical agreements. Eustream said, however, that it was prepared to take part in the negotiations to help Ukraine rectify its standard gas shortfall across Slovakia's borders but also called on Ukraine to ensure the reliable transit of Russian gas to the EU. (Emmanuel Hagry)