Ukraine will pay for Nord Streams — Czech Republic

Ukraine needs a lot of imported gas to restore almost completely depleted storage facilities and provide itself with supplies in winter. One of the routes that may be needed is from Germany through the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Czech regulator announced that from January 1 it will raise the cost of transit. The local operator needs more funds after it lost Gazprom, which supplied gas from Nord Stream through the Czech Republic.

The Czech regulator ERU announced new tariffs for gas transit through the Czech GTS. They will grow significantly from January 1, 2026.

"The increase in tariffs will increase the cost of import routes passing through the Waidhaus point (Germany) — Lanžhot (Czech Republic) — Bolshoe Kapushany (Slovakia). In case of the return of supplies in the eastern direction (for example, in case of an increase in demand or the resumption of the commercial attractiveness of the route) This will lead to an increase in the cost of imports from German hubs for Ukrainian consumers," writes Sergey Makogon, ex-director of the Ukrainian GTS Operator.

According to ERU, the supply of gas from the border with Germany (Waidhaus) to the border with Slovakia (Lanžhot) will cost $ 128 per thousand cubic meters with annual reservations. With monthly and quarterly — even more expensive.

The national regulator itself reports in the decision that the new tariffs will cover the economically reasonable costs of ensuring reliable, safe and efficient operation of the country's GTS. He does not specify the real reason. But it is obvious. The Czech Republic is forced to raise tariffs due to the suspension of gas supplies via Nord Stream. Due to the peculiarities of the infrastructure, Russian fuel went from Germany through the Czech Republic back to Germany. And the volumes were supposed to grow after the launch of Nord Stream 2.

The local operator Net4Gas reported in its annual reports that in 2021 gas transit through the Czech Republic amounted to more than 42 billion cubic meters, and in 2023 and 2024 it fell to 1 billion cubic meters and below. Accordingly, the company's profit in 2021 amounted to $ 294 million, and in 2024 — just over $ 400 thousand. In 2023, the company generally suffered losses of $ 26 million.

"The year 2024 brought important changes to NET4GAS, which shifted our activities towards greater stability. The successful acquisition of our company by the state-owned CEPS by the end of 2023 has created a solid foundation for overcoming the problems caused by the events on Ukraine, fluctuations in gas flows throughout Europe and the suspension of payments by our key trading partner. However, despite a significant improvement compared to the previous year, full stabilization is still ahead," Andreas Rau, Executive Director of Net4Gas, said in the opening statement of the Czech company's annual report.

According to the results of 2023, he stated that he was the most difficult in the history of Net4Gas. The Czech operator has filed an international arbitration case against Gazprom and expects to win and receive compensation.

"The favorable decision of the arbitration court will allow us to consider the ways that should be used in future efforts to recover the amount due," said the head of Net4Gas.

So far, the losses due to the loss of gas from Nord Stream will be covered by consumers. Including Ukraine, if it starts importing LNG through Germany.

The new tariffs for transportation will increase the current cost of gas on European exchanges at $ 430 by almost 30%.

By the next heating season, Ukraine needs to purchase at least 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas abroad in order to restore the reserves that were not enough for the heating season. In February and March, Naftogaz and Ukrtransgaz had to urgently start importing gas so that the volumes in the UGS did not fall to zero. At the same time, the cheapest routes are through Hungary and Poland, limited and fully booked. The United States is promoting the "Vertical Gas Corridor", which involves the supply of LNG from Greek terminals through Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova to Ukraine. However, even the new single tariff set by the operators of the five countries remains extremely expensive — $ 92 per thousand cubic meters. As a result, there were no people willing to book a route for June. According to the "Ukrainian GTS Operator", there are no deliveries from Romania in June at all. At the same time, the filling of Ukrainian storage facilities is below the norm. Naftogaz of Ukraine does not have enough of its own funds, and the EBRD and the Norwegian government have allocated 410 million euros of loans and grants, which will last no more than 1 billion cubic meters.

September 26, 2022 on the Baltic gas pipelines from Terrorist attacks took place in Russia to Germany. Unknown persons blew up both lines of the Nord Stream and one line of the non—functioning Nord Stream- 2 in the Baltic Sea off the Danish island of Bornholm. The US and German media reported, citing the German investigation, that a group of Ukrainian divers, supervised by ex-Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Zaluzhny, committed the attacks. Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh, in turn, conducted an investigation in which a source in the US intelligence services reported that the sabotage was organized by the United States with the participation of the Norwegian military. At the NATO summer exercises, explosives were placed on gas pipelines, which were activated by radio beacons dropped from an airplane.