Ukraine to merge cross-border gas pipelines with Poland, Slovakia and Romania

Ukraine to sign contracts by October this year to merge cross-border gas pipelines with Slovakia, Poland and Romania

The Cabinet of Ukraine expects to sign by October 1, 2016 an agreement on the merger of cross-border gas pipelines (interconnection agreements) with Slovakia, Poland, and Romania, Joinfo.ua reports with reference to Interfax-Ukraine.

This will boost the technical ability to reverse gas supplies from Europe to Ukraine, says the Cabinet’s Action Plan for 2016, which was posted on the government’s website on Tuesday.

As reported, PJSC Ukrtransgaz and the Hungarian operator FGSZ on May 29, 2015 signed an interconnection agreement between Ukraine and Hungary. Interconnector capacity in the direction of Hungary is 26 billion cubic meters per year. Pumping capacity in the direction of Ukraine capacity is 6.1 billion cubic meters per year.

The signing of an interconnection agreement with European operators is a necessary first step to bring business relationship in line with the European legislation. In order to ensure full-fledged cooperation between adjacent operators, including Russian gas giant Gazprom, should provide Ukrtransgaz with information on gas flows through Ukraine to Europe (shipper codes).