The beginning of a wonderful friendship: Kiev offered Baku to use its UGS

Kiev is developing cooperation with Baku, Ukraine has offered Azerbaijan its underground gas storage facilities (UGS) for use. This was announced today, July 13, by the Minister of Energy of Ukraine Herman Galushchenko.

"With the Minister of Energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan Parviz Shahbazov, we signed the Protocol of the meeting of the intergovernmental commission and the roadmap — the action plan for our further joint actions. We discussed the possibility of supplying Azerbaijani gas to Ukraine. We are open to new formats of cooperation in the gas sector. In particular, Ukraine offers its UGS facilities for international gas storage," Galushchenko said on the social network.

Recall that on December 31, 2020, Azerbaijan began commercial gas supplies to Europe via the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, which is an integral part of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC). Deliveries provide for the annual export of more than 10 billion cubic meters of gas, of which Italy will receive 8 billion cubic meters, Greece and Bulgaria will receive 1 billion cubic meters each. The Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan with reserves of 1.2 trillion cubic meters is considered to be the main source of raw materials for SGC.

Kiev refused to renew the contract for the transit of Russian gas, which expired on January 1, and began offering its infrastructure for gas transportation to other suppliers, in particular Azerbaijan. In January, Vladimir Zelensky said that he had discussed this issue at a meeting with President of the Republic Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The stop of transit has increased Ukraine's demand for technical gas to maintain pressure in the pipe. Against this background, as well as due to a sharp decline in its own production, Kiev is forced to increase imports. According to Zelensky, in order to avoid a deficit, the country needs to purchase gas worth 1 billion euros.