Zelenskyy announces intention to transit gas from Azerbaijan to Europe
This will be possible after the end of the contract with Gazprom at the end of this year
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine is negotiating the supply of natural gas from Azerbaijan to the European Union through its territory after the end of the transit agreement with Gazprom.
Source. He said this in an interview with Bloomberg.
Some European countries still receive Russian gas through a pipeline that crosses Ukraine. The transit agreement between Naftogaz and Gazprom expires at the end of 2024, and the Ukrainian side has no plans to extend it.
"We are currently considering alternative steps on how we can use the pipeline with another gas supplier, another country. Negotiations are underway," Zelenskyy said.
Kyiv does not want to extend the gas contract with Moscow, the president added: "We do not want them to make money here."
After the Nord Stream pipeline was blown up and pumping through the Yamal-Europe pipeline stopped, the transit line through Ukraine remained the only direct route for gas supplies from Russia to Central Europe.
The Ukrainian side's refusal to extend the agreement with Gazprom means that Ukraine's territory will be inaccessible for pumping Russian gas from 1 January 2025.
In June, it became known that the European Union offered Ukraine to keep gas transit through the country after the end of the contract with Russia.
According to one of the options, European companies will buy gas from Azerbaijan and pump it into pipelines that go through Ukraine to Europe.
According to Bloomberg sources, this idea is "gaining momentum" as Kyiv is interested in such a solution: in 2021, gas transit revenue brought Ukraine about $1 billion.
At the same time, the EU fears that if Ukraine stops transiting Russian gas, its gas transmission system (GTS) will become a military target for Russia and will quickly become unusable, which will require large expenditures to restore it.
Negotiations are currently at an early stage, and a decision is expected by the end of the year. Germany's Uniper is involved in the discussions, Bloomberg sources said.
Background. As a reminder, Uniper has decided to terminate its long-term contracts for the supply of Russian gas and thus finally legally ended its long-term relationship with Gazprom Export. This decision was made possible after an arbitration tribunal on 7 June awarded Uniper the right to terminate the contracts and recover more than €13 billion in compensation from Gazprom Export for the volumes of gas not supplied by the Russian company since 2022.
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