“According to Mykola Kolisnyk, Ukrainian underground gas storage and Polish liquefied gas terminals can create a new business model to replace Russian gas transit”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
The five-year contract for the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine expires on December 31. According to Kolisnyk, Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities and Polish liquefied gas terminals can create a new business model to replace Russian gas transit. The official noted on December 18 that Ukraine has already asked its partners to sign the relevant documents.
Kolisnyk also said he expects long-term and medium-term contracts, “similar to business models in the US.” “This will help Ukraine and Poland to store as much gas as is needed for the whole of Eastern Europe,” he explained.
Kyiv and Warsaw signed a Memorandum of Cooperation between their gas markets with the aim of their integration as early as March 2024. In August, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, stated that after the end of the contract with Russia’s Gazprom, Kyiv could transport gas from “other companies” at the request of European colleagues. Later, the adviser to the head of his office, Mykhailo Podolyak, explained that Ukraine is ready to supply any other gas, except Russian gas – for example, from Azerbaijan or Kazakhstan.
On December 17, it became known that the gas companies of the European Union – from Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and Italy – said that the end of the contract with Gazprom could “complicate the supply of gas” and “lead to higher prices for European consumers.” They appealed to the head of the European Commission with a request to try to extend the agreement on the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine.
Russia declared its readiness to extend the contract, Ukraine refuses to continue cooperation with Gazprom. With the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, European countries took a course to completely abandon Russian gas by 2027.