Tap cut off: deliveries of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine definitively stopped on Wednesday morning, after the expiration of a contract signed between Russia and kyiv at the end of 2019, a stoppage which worries several countries in the East of Europe.
“We stopped the transit of Russian gas, it’s a historic event. Russia is losing markets, it will suffer financial losses,” welcomed the Ukrainian Minister of Energy, German Galushchenko, quoted by his services in a press release.
No deliveries were planned for Wednesday, according to data published the day before by the Ukrainian operator GTSOU, noting the expiration of a five-year contract established in 2019 between the Ukrainian company Naftogaz and the Russian giant Gazprom.
At the time, Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed an agreement synonymous with “energy security” and “prosperity for Ukrainians”.
But times have changed radically, and Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 under the helpless gaze of Europe, a conflict which has since left hundreds of thousands dead and injured, civilians and soldiers alike.
Russia regularly attacks Ukrainian energy infrastructure, plunging millions of residents into the cold and darkness in the middle of winter.
Gazprom confirmed in a statement that: “Due to the repeated and explicit refusal of the Ukrainian side to extend this agreement, Gazprom was deprived of the technical and legal possibility of supplying gas for transit through Ukraine from January 1”lamented the Russian state enterprise.
Its daily exports to Europe via Ukrainian territory in recent weeks amounted to some 40 million m3, for a total volume supplied in 2023 of 14.65 billion cubic meters, according to official figures.
In this tense context, the price of European gas reached the symbolic mark of 50 euros per megawatt hour on Tuesday, a first in more than a year.
Slovakia worries
If Europe’s dependence has been significantly reduced since the start of the war in Ukraine, the states located in the East continue to obtain heavy supplies from Moscow.
According to Ukrainian Minister German Galushchenko on Wednesday, “Ukraine has informed its international partners”.
In recent weeks, Hungary and Slovakia have complained about seeing the tap cut off.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who remains close to Vladimir Putin and whose country is very dependent on Russian gas supplies, went to Moscow on December 22 to try to find an urgent solution.
This surprise trip provoked the anger of Volodymyr Zelensky, who accused Mr. Fico of wanting “help Putin”.
“Diversification has a price and any alternative to Russian gas will be significantly more expensive”the spokesperson for the Slovak gas company SPP, Ondrej Sebesta, has already warned AFP.
Hungary receives most of its Russian gas imports via TurkStream, which passes under the Black Sea, and the cessation of transit via Ukraine will only marginally affect it, even if Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said “not wanting to give up” this road.
With the end of this transit and more than two years after the sabotage of the Nord Stream tubes in the Baltic Sea, Europe will now only be supplied with Russian gas by TurkStream, and its Balkan Stream extension.
It also imports significant quantities of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) by LNG tankers.
In addition, Gazprom must stop delivering gas to Moldova on Wednesday, in the context of a financial dispute with this former Soviet republic which has just re-elected a pro-European president.
A sign of growing concern, Chisinau declared a state of emergency after the failure of negotiations with the Russian company.
Gazprom had already stopped a large part of its deliveries to this country after the start of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, now only supplying the pro-Russian separatist region of Transdnistria.
But its thermal power station still provides 70% of the electricity consumed by the entire country, one of the poorest in Europe.
