Ukrtransgaz proposing Slovakia's Eustream to sign agreement on merger of gas transport systems
Public joint-stock company Ukrtransgaz has proposed to Eustream, the operator of the Slovakian gas transport system, to sign an operation agreement on a merger of the neighbor gas transport systems, the press service of the Ukrainian operator reported on Monday.
The company said that the agreement is in line with the requirements of the European Energy Community and the sides are full-members of the Energy Community.
Until now Eustream has refused to sign such an agreement.
In response to information spread by Eustream on April 24, Naftogaz Ukrainy said that Gazprom Export LLC is not fulfilling the functions of the operator of the Ukrainian gas transport system and the relevant agreement was not signed by the Russian company and Ukrtransgaz.
As reported, natural gas transit through Ukraine to Europe and the CIS countries in January-March 2014 decreased by 8.3% compared to the same period in 2013, to 18.610 billion cubic meters.
Transit of natural gas through the Ukrainian gas transportation system in 2013 amounted to 86.126 billion cubic meters, which is 2.2% more than in 2012. In particular transit to Europe amounted to 83.74 billion cubic meters, and to Moldova - 2.386 billion cubic meters.
Ukrtransgaz, 100% owned by Naftogaz Ukrainy, operates a system of trunk gas pipelines and 12 underground gas storage facilities of the country.
Ukraine's gas transport system has throughput capacity of 288 billion cubic meters at input and 178.5 billion cubic meters at output, including 142.5 billion cubic meters to countries in Europe and 3.5 billion cubic meters to Moldova.