The representative of the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky in the cabinet of ministers Andriy Gerus said that the coming winter will be difficult for the country due to low coal reserves and disputes with Gazprom. Gazeta.ru told where Kiev could take gas bypassing the Russian pipe.Naftogaz Ukrainy officially stopped purchasing from Gazprom on November 25, 2015. The current gas and gas transit contract of Moscow and Kiev was signed in 2009. The document expires on December 31, 2019. Gerus said disputes with Gazprom over transit could adversely affect the Ukrainian gas market.Analysts interviewed by Gazeta.ru said that Ukraine is primarily counting on gas supplies from Europe. Last week, Ukrtransgaz agreed on the possibility of reverse gas supplies from Romania; a new fuel import route is planned to be launched in January 2020. In Kiev, they expect that from next year from Romania to Ukraine will be supplied 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas annually.It is also planned that the Kaushany station in Moldova will be involved in deliveries.Dmitry Marunich, co-chairman of the Energy Strategies Fund, told the newspaper that now imported gas, including Russian, goes to Ukraine via the Hungarian, Polish and Slovak routes. According to the expert, gas supplies from the EU can be logical, but only if Kiev agrees with European traders about a favorable price.“In the worst case scenario, Kiev will try to stockpile 20 billion cubic meters in its storage facilities and wait for the opportunity to agree with Russia on the resumption of transit,” said Marunich.Leading expert of the National Energy Security Fund Igor Yushkov warned that there may not be enough gas for Ukraine on the European market. According to him, deliveries of Russian gas to Ukraine through the Turkish Stream (through Romania and Moldova) are possible.“But the flow capacity is limited, therefore, during the hot heating season, European traders are unlikely to sell gas to Ukraine,” the expert added.Another option for Kiev is American suppliers. The head of Naftogaz, Andrei Kobolev, said that Ukraine was in talks to purchase liquefied natural gas in the United States. Analysts believe that for Washington the Ukrainian market is a way to find new customers for sales. However, to provide the Ukrainian market with reduced gas, terminals are needed, which are not available now.According to Marunich, Kiev can receive US gas through a Polish hub in Swinoujsc with a capacity of five billion cubic meters per year, but this capacity is not enough to meet the needs of both Polish consumers and Ukrainians.Yushkov believes that the price of American gas may be much higher than the cost of pipeline. It is not cheap to get liquefied gas because of the need to clean it of impurities, and the price of a contract between Washington and Kiev may not be tied to traders’ bids and may be higher than the market.In addition to the EU and US agreements, in July Kiev announced plans to transport Qatari gas through the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline. The first deliveries are scheduled for January 2020, but in reality this is unlikely to be implemented, experts say. According to them, for the passage of liquefied gas from Doha to Kiev, you need to build a jumper from one of the terminals to the main pipeline system.“This takes time and money, which Kiev does not have,” said one of the analysts.
