At a joint press conference with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico on October 7 in Kiev, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced that his country will not extend the Russian gas transit agreement when it expires at the end of 2024.
“Ukraine will not extend the gas transit agreement with Russia after it expires,” Prime Minister Shmyhal was quoted as saying in an article on the Ukrainian Government Portal.
According to Mr. Shmyhal, Ukraine's strategic goal is to "impose sanctions on Russian gas, depriving the Kremlin of profits from gas sales to finance the war."
“We call on all European countries to completely abandon Russian oil and gas. We understand the deep dependence of some countries, especially Slovakia, on such resources. But we believe in the gradual diversification of supply sources,” Prime Minister Shmyhal noted.
At the same time, according to Mr. Shmyhal, Ukraine is ready to further fulfill its obligations under the Association Agreement with the European Union (EU) and the Energy Charter Treaty.
The current contract on Russian gas transit through Ukraine will be valid until the end of 2024.
Ukraine's Naftogaz will not renew the contract for the transportation of 42 million cubic meters of gas per day. Alternative solutions are being sought to maintain the operation of the gas pipeline system in Ukraine.
During their talks on October 7, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico also discussed cooperation in the fields of energy security and infrastructure projects.
According to Upstream, Russian attacks on Ukraine's vast underground gas storage facilities, but not its gas pipelines, have reduced the desire of European gas companies to store their gas in Ukraine over the summer for pickup this winter.
Russia repeatedly launched missiles and heavy attack drones (UAVs) on Ukrainian gas storage sites in the spring.
The attacks are believed to have damaged above-ground infrastructure at Ukraine’s largest underground facility, Bilche-Volitsko-Ugerskoye in the west of the country. The site can store up to 17 billion cubic meters of gas, equivalent to more than half of Ukraine’s total underground storage capacity.
Despite Naftogaz’s storage marketing efforts and the government’s recent decision to freeze storage fees until at least the end of the first quarter of 2025, European companies pumped just 335 million cubic meters of gas into Ukrainian storage from April to September this year, compared with 2.8 billion cubic meters in the same period in 2023.
Earlier reports suggested that Naftogaz could turn to Azerbaijan's state oil company, Socar, as an intermediary to avoid any direct deal with Russia's Gazprom, but Baku has denied such talks.
