Minister: Russian gas transit through Ukraine could end by 2024
Renewal of the gas transit contract between Ukraine and Russia next year is unlikely, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko told the Financial Times on June 22.
Kyiv signed a five-year deal with Russia's state-owned gas supplier Gazprom in 2019. According to Halushchenko, it is difficult to imagine the renegotiation of the contract after Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.
As the Financial Times noted, the pipeline is one of the few remaining gas transit routes for Russian gas westward, accounting for 5% of Europe's total gas imports.
The suspension of the Ukrainian transit will leave TurkStream as the only route through which Russia delivers gas to Europe.
Since last year, Moscow started limiting its gas exports to the EU to drive up the prices to undermine support for Ukraine.
European countries began working to diversify their suppliers, for example, buying liquified natural gas (LNG) from the U.S. or Qatar.
While in 2021 Russia accounted for almost half of the EU's gas imports, by the end of 2022 the number dropped to 13%.
In May, the G7 and the EU announced they will ban Russian gas imports on routes where Moscow has cut supplies before.
Alexander Query
