Trans-Balkan reverse on Ukraine stood up

Since September, reverse gas supplies via the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline, which became part of the Vertical Gas Corridor project, to Ukraine have stopped. On the one hand, one of the retaliatory strikes of the Russian army damaged a gas compressor station on the border with Romania. On the other hand, the gas flows continued and the companies themselves did not order any supplies. Obviously, this is also due to too high transportation costs along the route.

From September 1, gas supplies through Romania to Ukraine stopped. According to the platform of the GTS operators of the EU countries ENTSOG, gas supply through the Isakcha point/Orlovka on The Trans-Balkan gas pipeline has dropped to zero.

The stop of deliveries is also confirmed by the data of the Ukrainian GTS Operator.

The route is being actively promoted as part of the Vertical Gas Corridor project, which should ensure the supply of regasified LNG from Greece to the Balkans and Ukraine and is supported by the United States. However, his fate did not work out. Transportation costs are high. So much so that even a 25% discount of operators of five countries on transit from Greece to Ukraine did not inspire traders.

If in July and August they used the route for a little more than 400 thousand cubic meters per day out of a possible 11.3 million cubic meters and the volumes accounted for only 2% of all imports by Ukraine, then the auction for booking capacities for September on the RBP platform ended in a complete absence of applications at all. They are also not available for regular gas transit through Romania, including at daily auctions.

In August, Kiev announced the establishment of cooperation with Azerbaijan. However, everything was limited to a test batch of several tens of thousands of cubic meters.

As reported by EADaily, the Bulgarian operator Bulgartransgaz announced a significant increase in the booking of supplies to Romania and attributed this to the interest in the "Vertical Gas Corridor", which is promoted by the United States as an alternative to Russian gas. The banks also expressed a desire to finance the expansion of the project in Bulgaria. At the same time, the actual data show that sales of Russian gas are growing in the region, and the project itself does not justify itself due to high fuel transportation tariffs.