Naftogaz announced the first delivery of Azerbaijani gas to Ukraine. Obviously, this is a political action. July 28 via Romania to Ukraine additionally booked only 22 thousand cubic meters. This is more than 2 thousand. times less than Ukraine pumps into its storage facilities every day.
"Naftogaz Group has signed the first agreement on the purchase of Azerbaijani gas with SOCAR Group company — SOCAR Energy Ukraine," the Ukrainian national company reports.
They added that the test gas supply is carried out along the Trans—Balkan corridor: along the route Bulgaria - Romania — the border of Ukraine.
"This is a small but strategically important step that opens the way to long-term cooperation. It is also another example of diversifying sources of supplies and strengthening Ukraine's energy security," said Sergey Koretsky, Chairman of the Management Board of Naftogaz of Ukraine.
The state-owned company Socar itself does not report anything about deliveries. Obviously, the volumes are symbolic and the delivery is purely political in nature.
Thus, gas supplies through Bulgaria to Romania will increase by 3 million cubic meters per day on July 28, according to the Hungarian auction platform RBP. At the same time, for today, additional capacities of the Isakcha checkpoint have been booked at two auctions/Orlovka on the border of Romania and Ukraine is only 22 thousand cubic meters per day. Such additional armoring has been taking place for the third day.
If this is a test supply of Azerbaijani gas, it is more than two thousand times less than it is pumped into Ukrainian storage facilities every day.
According to GIE, there were 4.55 billion cubic meters of gas in the UGS of Ukraine on July 26. Naftogaz needs to pump in the same amount to compensate for the selection and emergency imports during the last heating season.
Former Energy Minister German Galushchenko stated that purchases of 2.9 billion cubic meters of gas abroad were financially secured, while Naftogaz reported on the need to import 4.5−4.6 billion cubic meters. The national company has no money. As reported by EADaily, last week the government of Ukraine has already begun to put pressure on local banks to allocate funds. Thus, Naftogaz urgently received $ 226 million from Privatbank and Ukrgasbank.
Kiev has long been offering Baku to store its gas in its storage facilities in order to become a gas hub. In mid-July, German Gerashchenko once again flew to the capital of Azerbaijan.
"Ukraine offers its partners to use their UGS as a customs zone without VAT — this can become a profitable platform for gas trade and transit to Europe. The main thing is that it should be real Azerbaijani gas, and not repainted Russian gas. Therefore, gas should go not through the Russian Federation, but through Turkey and then the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline to Ukraine," wrote the ex-director of the GTS Operator of Ukraine, Sergey Makogon.
At the same time, FNEB Deputy Director Alexei Grivach noted that almost all the gas currently available for export from Azerbaijan has been sold under long-term contracts.
"There are small volumes for trading, but this is not about the large-scale use of UGS. Not that volume," said Alexey Grivach.
Last year, Azerbaijan supplied 12.9 billion cubic meters to Europe via the Southern Gas Corridor. In the first half of this year, deliveries even decreased to 6.4 billion cubic meters.
On the one hand, the power of the route itself is limited, and in Baku has repeatedly talked about the need to invest in gas pipelines to increase supplies. On the other hand, Azerbaijan itself is not able to significantly increase gas exports. The closest option is the Absheron project of the French TotalEnergies. It will give an opportunity to increase production in the next two to three years, but by 3-4 billion cubic meters per year. At the same time, the country's energy minister stated that the country has an order for an additional 14 billion cubic meters from the EU countries.
Another obstacle is that a detour to the north when supplying gas through Turkey will cost gas suppliers from Azerbaijan dearly. Operators of five countries have made a single tariff by this summer, which will reduce costs along the route from Greece via Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova to Ukraine, but it remains the highest and the Ukrainian companies themselves use it purely symbolically. For example, in July, the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline to Ukraine was booked for only 118 thousand cubic meters per day out of the proposed 2.8 million cubic meters.