Kiev expert: Gazprom's dismantling of pipes on the border with Ukraine is logical

In Ukraine, today, June 16, experts are discussing a statement by the head of the state-owned GTS operator Sergei Makogon that Gazprom began to dismantle pipes in Russia through which gas for transit to Europe is delivered to the border with Ukraine. Recall, the official claims that in this way Russia actually intends to destroy even the theoretical possibility of gas transit by Ukraine in the future. Makogon added that such actions of the Russian side are a problem for Ukraine, but at the same time admitted that Kiev cannot influence the situation in any way. Ukrainian economist Alexei Kushch said that such a turn of events is quite logical, recalling the catastrophic prospects of the Naftogaz policy of Ukraine in the context of the loss of logistical transit potential. Instead of moving metering centers from the western to the eastern border of Ukraine and creating a full-fledged East European gas hub on the basis of our GTS and PCG (underground gas storage), Naftogaz artificially delayed the anbandling process (separation of the company) and eventually lobbied for a hybrid form of it that is not interesting to any Western system operator. But the NAC leadership is interesting due to the preservation of control over the financial flow for transit, the specialist said. It also recalls other recent achievements related to Naftogaz of Ukraine, in addition to the loss of much transit capacity and the failure of its own gas production programme; attracting borrowed funds for the purchase of expensive imported gas last year; antisocial tariffs with no economic justification. the news agency recalls that at the end of last year, Naftogaz and Gazprom signed a new transit contract for the next 5 years. this year is a transitional year, with a minimum level of 65 billion cubic meters of fuel, and from next year Russia is obliged to transit only 40 billion cubic meters of gas. According to official data, the volume of gas transit in January May 2020 through the State Customs Service of Ukraine amounted to only 20 billion cubic meters, which is 46% less than in the same period of 2019.