Ukraine not planning to extend transit contract with Gazprom - Halushchenko

Ukraine is not planning to extend the transit contract with russia's Gazprom after December 31, 2024.

This was announced by the press service of the Ministry of Energy, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"I can confirm that we are not planning to enter into any additional agreements or extend the validity of this agreement," said Energy Minister of Ukraine, Herman Halushchenko.

He emphasized that last year a stress test of the Ukrainian gas transportation system and underground gas storage facilities was conducted, which proved that the system can function without transit.

Halushchenko also recalled the statement of the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, regarding the lack of interest of the EU in extending the transit contract with russia.

"There is an EU initiative RepowerEU, which predicts that by 2027, European countries will completely get rid of russian gas, not only pipeline gas, but all gas, including LNG," he added.

Halushchenko noted that there are enough alternatives to russian gas on the market today.

According to him, a number of European countries have already followed this path, in particular Germany, which reduced its dependence on russian gas to almost zero in a year and a half.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in March, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced that Ukraine does not plan to negotiate with russia on the extension of the contract for the transit of russian natural gas after its completion, but if European partners are interested in it, Kyiv is ready to consider transit options.

In December 2019, the companies Naftogaz of Ukraine, GTS Operator of Ukraine and russia's Gazprom signed an agreement on the transit of russian gas to Europe through the territory of Ukraine from 2020.

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