Director of the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine Serhiy Makohon has said that Ukraine and Slovakia will launch a virtual gas reverse on March 1, which was previously impossible due to the old transit contract with Gazprom.
“LLC “Gas TSO of Ukraine” and Eustream a.s. are launching virtual reverse flow on IP Velke Kapusany / Uzhgorod starting from 1st of March 2020. We have been going to this event for almost 5 years,” said Makohon, adding that due to the Gazprom’s position, which was trying to limit Ukraine’s ability to import gas from the EU, in 2014, the Ukrainian state could not import gas into Ukraine.
According to him, Ukraine had to build a new physical interconnector – the Vojany-Uzhgorod pipeline in order to start gas supplies from Slovakia, which made it possible to prevent Ukraine to become completely dependent on Gazprom.
“We needed to sign a direct agreement with the GTS operator of Slovakia and achieve the realization of this opportunity in this agreement. Necessary changes were made to Ukrainian legislation. We thank NKREKP for support! Changes were made to the customs code. But most importantly, we were able to remove Gazprom from our GIS [gas metering station – ed.] on the western borders, and now we are completely in control of our relations with European GTS operators,” Makoghon said.
However, at the moment, the Slovak operator offers only 10 million cubic meters per day, but the company is working to ensure that the capacity will be increased to the full volume of transit to Slovakia from Ukraine.
In addition, Hungary will start a virtual reverse soon. According to Makohon, the virtual reverse significantly expands the possibilities for importing gas from Ukraine to the EU, which at times strengthens our energy security.
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