Following the launch of the Poland-Slovakia interconnector, Ukrainian traders will receive additional opportunities and one more guaranteed gas transportation route from liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals in Poland and the Baltic countries, as well as access to the Baltic Pipe.
“Thanks to a decade of strategic work – the construction of LNG terminals, interconnectors, the implementation of Baltic Pipe project – Poland is becoming a gas hub of Northeastern Europe,” commented Sergiy Makogon, the CEO of the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU), which had already signed an agreement with the Slovakian TSO to increase the firm capacity of gas imports
“We remark on the diversification of sources and routes,” he continued. “It is a significant contribution to the energy security of the region. For its part, Ukraine can offer our partners access to underground gas storage, gas transit for short distances between the countries of North-Eastern and South-Eastern Europe and integration of decarbonised gases for industrial needs. The gas market in the foreseeable future has prospects to become truly open and competitive and politicised and monopolistic pricing will remain a relic of the past.”
After the launch of the Poland-Slovakia interconnector, Ukraine will be able to import almost 13 million cubic meters (mcm) per day (or 4.7 billion cubic meters per year) from Poland via Slovakia. Currently, Ukrainian traders have the opportunity to import gas from the Slovak, Hungarian and Polish directions with a total volume of 54 mcm per day.
“Ukrainian traders are interested in the firm capacity for gas imports,” added commented Pawel Stanczak, Deputy CEO for Development and Transformation of the GTSOU. “GTSOU, in cooperation with Eustream, took far-sighted care to increase the possibility of physical gas imports from Slovakia to 42 mcm per day. Ukraine has received increased access to the liquefied gas market. In the example of partner countries, we see how strategic investments in infrastructure bring long-term results. We will not stop and continue working on increasing firm capacity for gas imports directly from Poland on a long-term basis.”
