Ukraine Triples Daily Gas Import from Hungary

Kyiv, July 8, 2014. Ukraine increased reverse supply of natural gas from Hungary threefold: up to 5.2 million cubic meters per day, which is 3.5 million cubic meters more compared to July 3 volumes. This was reported by Hungarian gas transporting system operator FGSZ Ltd, as reads wwc.un.ua.

According to FGSZ Ltd, during July 1-3, Ukraine’s gas imports from Hungary amounted to 1.7 million cubic meters of gas per day. Notably, in June Ukraine imported about 214.1 million cubic meters of natural gas through Hungary in the reverse mode, reported epravda.com.ua.

In May, Ukraine resumed imports of natural gas through the territory of its western neighbor Hungary. By May 21, the eastern European country increased daily imports of natural gas from Hungary by over 100 times. Earlier, the average daily deliveries of gas amounted to 22.5 thousand cubic meters. Today, however, Hungarian operator received application from Ukraine for the supply of 2.46 million cubic meters of gas. At the same time, this volume is far from reaching the maximum technical capability of importing 16 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, reads economics.unian.net.

Notably, in order to achieve energy independence amidst the escalation of conflict with Russia, Ukraine has been developing reverse gas supply routes from Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Romania. Remarkably, on April 28, Ukraine and Slovakia reached an agreement on the reverse gas supply, as announced by the Minister of Economy of Slovakia Tomas Malatinsky. The gas will be supplied to Ukraine through the Voyany-Uzhgorod pipeline.

On June 2, Slovak gas transporting company Eustream reported on the successful conclusion of the Open Season procedure – a call for applications to supply gas to Ukraine through Slovakia in the reverse mode. As a result, over two dozen European suppliers, including EU’s largest gas traders, turned in their proposals.

“The results of the Open Season procedure confirm that the reverse gas supply from the EU to Ukraine is a commercially attractive and legally impeccable business. The vast Ukrainian market is of high interest to the European businesses,” commented Andriy Kobolev, CEO of NJSC Naftogaz Ukraine. “It is beyond a doubt that together with Voyany-Uzhgorod pipeline, Slovak capacities to transport gas to Ukraine will also employ one of the four main gas pipelines, which are currently not used to the full extent, at the Velke Kapusany hub,” he concluded.