Russia Tells Europe To Negotiate With Ukraine For Gas Transit Deal | OilPrice.com

Russia has said it’s willing to continue supplying gas to Europe via Ukraine if Kyiv and the involved European countries can come to an agreement.

“Of course, in my opinion, the European countries that currently receive gas through this corridor are interested in continuing such cooperation,”  Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who is in charge of Russia’s energy policy, told reporters “We are ready to supply (gas), but not much depends on us, so probably this should be negotiated directly between the users and the country through which the transit is provided.”

Last year, Ukraine signaled it has no intention to renew a five-year pipeline transit agreement to supply natural gas to EU countries when it expires on December 31, 2024, while EU energy chief Kadri Simson indicated that the EU executive has “no interest” in pushing to revive the agreement. The EU has warned member countries to prepare for a world without Russian gas, with Ukraine gas amounting to 5% of total EU gas imports. Aura Sabadus, a senior analyst at the ICIS market intelligence firm, told Politico that Austria, Hungary and Slovakia are likely to be the hardest hit when the imports are cut off. 

Over the past two years, Europe has rapidly distanced itself from Russia’s energy commodities in protest to Russia’s war in Ukraine. The European Union first placed an embargo on the import of crude oil from Russia in December 2022, followed by an embargo on oil products (including petrol and diesel) in February 2023. Meanwhile, Russian natural gas imports have fallen from about 450 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) at the end of 2021 to about 150 mcm/d currently.  The remaining gas flows are roughly split between LNG, pipeline flows through Ukraine and other pipeline routes (primarily flows via Turkey into Bulgaria as well as a small flow via Belarus into Lithuania). Europe has now emerged from two winter seasons with plenty of gas despite dramatically cutting Russian imports. 

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

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