Gazprom will not cease gas transit via Ukraine: Miller

Gazprom is not going to fully cease the gas transit via the territory of Ukraine, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller has announced stressing that the gas transit may be preserved in the volume of 10-15 bn cubic meters annually.

“We have never posed a question of abandoning the Ukrainian gas transit,” Miller is quoted as saying by RIA Novosti. “Some certain transit may be preserved, it can be 10-15 bn cubic meters per year, but the Ukrainian party must substantiate the economic effectiveness of a new transit contract,” Miller said.

As EADaily reported earlier, on April 10, German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced necessity to preserve the gas transit via Ukraine. According to her, implementation of the Nord Stream 2 project is impossible without understanding of the future role of the Ukrainian transit.

According to Naftogaz, Ukraine would have lost 2-3% of its GDP if the Russian gas transit is suspended (it is about $3.5 bn per year).

According to the Vedomosti newspaper, Gazprom and Naftogaz have started discussing the new gas-transit contract. It is not about revising the current contract that will be in force till the end of 2019. The sides discuss condition of the transit to be started in 2022.

The Nord Stream 2 project envisages construction of two routes of the gas pipeline with a total capacity of 55 bn c m of gas annually from the Russian shore via the Baltic Sea to Germany. Its estimated total cost is 9.5 bn EUR. Ukraine is trying to counteract implementation of the project saying it will establish Russia’s “absolute monopoly” in the European gas market.