Ukraine Gas Imports Rise on Year
Ukraine increased its imports by 27% last year, totalling 14.1bn m³ in 2017, state monopoly Naftogaz Ukrainy said January 31. As in 2016, all of its imports came from companies other than Gazprom, although Russian gas would have accounted for most of the physical supply.
An important result of the year was an increase in the volume and share of imports by private traders. Last year, they imported 5.4bn m³ or 1.8 times more than 2016.
Naftogaz imported 8.7bn m³ of gas, which indicates 6% growth. The number of European suppliers amounted to 13 companies, down from 15 in 2016. None of these companies supplies more than 30% of the volume of imported gas.
The imports are likely to fall this year, as under the terms of its take-or-pay arbitration it must buy 4 or 5bn m³ from Gazprom, and Naftogaz Ukrainy CEO Andriy Kobolev said January 17 that the company is ready to begin purchasing gas from Gazprom this quarter, but at hub prices.
He said that buying 4-5bn m³ from Gazprom in 2018 at the new price, set by the Stockholm arbitration court last year, was economically beneficial. But he did not give the start date.
The transit of Russian gas through Ukraine to European countries started to decline from 238.7mn m3/d on January 1 to 180mn m3/d on January 22. In whole 2017, the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine increased by 13.7% to 93.45bn m³, sharing 48% of total Russian gas supply to European countries.
Ukraine's domestic gas production also grew 4% on year to 20.791bn m³ in 2017, of which 78.65% was produced by Naftogaz Ukrainy, which was up 2.5%. Other companies produced 8.6% more, totalling 4.438bn m³, the energy ministry told Interfax-Ukraine January 30.