On Monday 5 September, the Ukrainian gas company Naftogaz announced that it would comply in full with the order of the Russian gas company Gazprom to increase the volume of Russian gas transiting via Ukraine to the EU by 20%, so as to guarantee Ukraine's reliability as a transit partner.
"Gazprom has increased its gas transport order to Europe via Ukraine by 20%. The volume requested for transmission is equal to 282 billion cubic metres a day. This increase is several times higher than the one stipulated in the contract between Naftogaz and Gazprom. Even so, Ukraine intends to honour this order", Naftogaz states in a press release.
This "sudden increase" in Gazprom's transmission order is due to a malfunction of the OPAL gas pipeline connecting the North Stream gas pipeline to the gas transport systems in Germany and central Europe, the Ukrainian gas company states, on the basis of the information available to it.
Naftogaz went on to say that Gazprom has stuck to the gas pressure level provided for by the gas contract in place between the two of them at the Sudzha entry point, but not at the Pysarivka entry point.
Russia and Ukraine are engaged in a long-running battle over gas, which may have implications for the supply of Russian gas to the EU. Under the mediation of the EU, the two countries agreed in autumn 2015 on a memorandum of understanding valid until the end of March 2016 for supplies of Russian gas to Ukraine for winter 2015-2016, but at the end of November 2015, Ukraine completely stopped buying from Russia, instead sourcing its gas from Slovakia, Poland and Hungary.
The European Commission hopes to relaunch trilateral negotiations on gas in order to secure supplies of Russian gas to Ukraine and its uninterrupted transit to the EU over the coming winter (see EUROPE 11613). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)