The volume of gas passing through Ukraine to Europe has fallen. Ukraine and Russia blame each other for this unprecedented situation since the beginning of the conflict.
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Water in the gas. The volume of Russian gas passing through Ukraine to Europe fell sharply on Wednesday (May 11), Moscow and kyiv said. Ukraine is questioning the Russian takeover of gas infrastructure in the east of the country. This is the first time since the start of the Russian invasion in late February that gas transit has been disrupted in this way, the energy company Naftogaz told AFP.
The Ukrainian operator of the Ogtsou gas pipelines for its part affirmed, in a press release, that the Russian group Gazprom had closed the tap to a Ukrainian branch of the gas pipeline after its declarations the day before. Ogtsou warned Tuesday evening that he could no longer ensure the usual transit due to the presence of Russian forces in the Sokhranivka and Novopskov installations, in the Luhansk region and through which a third of the Russian gas intended for Europe passes. He denounced “illegal withdrawals” of “gas intended for transit”, sent according to kyiv to Russian-occupied territories in eastern Ukraine, without giving figures. The Ukrainian operator requests that the Russian gas be directed to another crossing point, in Sudja, located in the territories controlled by kyiv.
Gazprom for its part denied on Tuesday any case of “major force” and argued that it was impossible to reroute the volumes for “technological reasons”. He confirmed to the Russian agency Tass that volumes would drop today to 72 million m3, but indicated that 95.8 million m3 had been delivered the day before. According to figures released by Ogtsou on Wednesday morning, volumes passing through Sokhranivka have fallen to zero and those through Sudja need to be increased, but not enough to compensate for the drop.
In Germany, the government energy agency saw a 25% drop. “Due to the reduction in transit, the volumes of gas transported to Germany via Ukraine (through the Megal pipeline) have decreased by 25% compared” to Tuesday, said this agency on its website, ensuring however that “these volumes are currently offset by larger flows, particularly from Norway and the Netherlands”.