Energy: Ukrainian Russian gas taps are cut off

Tap cut off: deliveries of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine definitively stopped on Wednesday, after the expiration of a contract signed between the two parties at the end of 2019 and maintained despite Russia’s invasion of the country. This stop, which concerns almost a third of total Russian gas deliveries to Europe, worries several Eastern European countries, notably Moldova, particularly vulnerable, and Slovakia which has warned of serious consequences.

“We stopped the transit of Russian gas, it’s a historic event. Russia is losing markets, it will suffer financial losses,” said Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko. 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.

This end of transit is “one of Moscow’s biggest defeats,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday. “When (Vladimir) Putin took power in Russia more than 25 years ago, the annual volume of gas sent via Ukraine to Europe amounted to more than 130 billion cubic meters. Today, Russian gas transit is at zero, which is one of Moscow’s biggest defeats,” he wrote on social media.

At the time, in 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky was nevertheless delighted with an agreement synonymous with “energy security” and “prosperity for Ukrainians”, which was to bring the country “more than seven billion dollars” over five years . But times have changed radically. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and its army regularly attacks Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

“Drastic impact”

Gazprom confirmed in a statement that “since 08:00 (05:00 GMT), Russian gas has not been supplied for transit through Ukraine.” Its exports to Europe via Ukrainian territory amount to just over 14 billion cubic meters per year, 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.

In recent weeks, Hungary and Slovakia have complained about seeing the tap cut off. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, well-disposed towards Vladimir Putin and whose country is very dependent on Russian gas supplies, warned on Wednesday of a “drastic impact on all of us in the EU”. This nationalist leader went to Moscow on December 22 to try to find an urgent solution, provoking the anger of Volodymyr Zelensky, who accused him of wanting to “help Putin”.

«-Transdniestria without heating

Hungary receives the bulk of its Russian gas imports via TurkStream, which passes under the Black Sea, and stopping transit via Ukraine will only marginally affect it, although Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said “not not wanting to abandon” this road. Among kyiv’s closest allies, Poland, through its head of diplomacy Radoslaw Sikorski, for its part welcomed “a new victory” over Moscow.

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.

If the EU claims to have prepared for such a scenario, the case of Moldova – which has declared a state of emergency – is more critical. Gazprom had announced the cessation of deliveries even before kyiv formalized the end of the transit contract, in the context of a financial dispute with this former Soviet republic with European aspirations.

In this country, the pro-Russian separatist region of Transdniestria “is going through a difficult situation” after the local supplier Tiraspoltransgaz “interrupted the supply of natural gas and heating”, warned Moldovan government spokesperson Daniel Voda, calling for Russia to “stop its blackmail”. Residents are invited to “dress warmly”, “group together in one room” and not use homemade heating methods to prevent the risk of fire, according to a press release from an energy company. According to the authorities, 131 schools and 147 kindergartens had to be cut off from the network due to the supply interruption. The leader of the pro-Russian separatists, Vadim Krasnosselskiï, quickly recognized “a problem” and called an emergency meeting. The rest of Moldova is spared for the moment, notably thanks to help from neighboring Romania. It has no longer received Russian gas since the start of the war in Ukraine but depends for a large part of its electricity needs on the Transdniestrian thermal power station.

AFP

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