Ukraine warns Austria about non-renewal of contract for transit of Russian gas after 2024 - DW

Ukraine has warned Austria that it does not plan to renew the contract for the transit of Russian gas after its expiration in 2024.

Economic expert Andrii Hurkov said this to DW, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"Mainly Austria is provided by the Ukrainian route, a large, long-standing, traditional buyer of Russian gas, still Soviet gas. A little can go to Hungary and Italy. Kyiv has already warned the Austrian company OMV that it will not renew the 5-year contract for the transit of Russian gas, which will expire in 2024," he said.

In this regard, according to the expert, OMV reserved transit facilities for the supply of Norwegian gas and LNG and for deliveries from Italian terminals, and also decided to develop another field in the Romanian part of the Black Sea.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in December 2019, the Naftogaz of Ukraine National Joint Stock Company, GTS Operator of Ukraine and Gazprom signed an agreement on the transit of Russian gas to Europe through the territory of Ukraine since 2020.

Ukraine and Russia agreed that, under a new gas transit contract for 5 years, which can be extended after 2024, the transit volume in 2020 will be 65 billion cubic meters of gas, and in 2021-2024 - 40 billion cubic meters of gas each.