KIEV CONCERNED ABOUT CHISINAU’S INTENTION TO OBTAIN NATURAL GAS IN DETOUR OF UKRAINE

Moldovan President Igor Dodon has delivered a sudden blow on Ukraine’s gas-transit ambitions, presumes Ukrainian expert Andrei Stetsenko.

In his latest review of Ukrainian energy news he makes for the Russian news agency Regnum, Stetsenko explained that the reason of the said concern are the recent statements made by President Igor Dodon, “who apprehends the unpredictability of the Ukrainian gas route”.

“In January-July 2018, Ukraine reduced the importation of natural gas to 5,578 million cubic meters i.e. down by 2.56 billion cubic meters against the equivalent period in the previous year. In the Moldovan direction, Ukraine transports not very much – about 2-3 billion cubic meters annually. But against the background of the imminent reduction of the gas transit to 40 billion cubic meters from the current 90 billion, and may be even down to 20 billion cubic meters, even such small losses as with Moldova are beginning to look considerable”, believes the Ukrainian territory expert.

Meanwhile, according to the UkrTransGaz company that runs the Russian natural gas transit via the Ukrainian territory, in July 2018 the Russian gas transit to Moldova grew up to 151.8 million cubic meters, i.e. increased by 1.3% against July 2017. And in January-July of this year, the gas supply to the Republic of Moldova (including to Transnistria) increased by 13% marking 1,692 million cubic meters.

As was already reported by Infotag, Moldova has already built a trans-border gas pipeline between the Romanian city of Iasi and the Moldovan town of Ungheni. The pipeline is able to pump annually nearly 1.5 billion cubic meters of fuel from Romania and thus to put an end to Moldova’s dependence on the Russian Gazprom Concern. In the nearest 2 years, this pipeline is going to be extended until Chisinau to make the facility more functional.