Russia–Ukraine gas disputes

Russia’s Gazprom said it is continuing to pipe natural gas to Europe via Ukraine.

The volume of gas flow at the Sunza metering station was recorded today at 42.3 million cubic meters.

Source: APPE-MPA

Ukraine has agreed to transit natural gas from Azerbaijan to Europe as an interim measure following the expiration of its transit agreement with Russia, although it expects that the quantities of gas from Azerbaijan will include quantities of Russian gas, the news website Ukrainska Pravda wrote today.

Ukraine’s advance into Russia may be entering a new phase after Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukrainian forces now control the city of Sudzha, the largest city in the Kursk region, located 10 kilometers within Russian territory.

Suddenly, this becomes significant because Sudzha is a critical transit point for natural gas flowing from Western Siberia to Europe via Ukraine.

It's one of the more improbable aspects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine: Even after 2 1/2 years of war and repeated rounds of sanctions, Russian natural gas keeps flowing through Ukraine's pipeline network to customers in Europe.

Ukraine launched drone attacks on two Russian regions, targeting defense lines as its infantry pushed to seize more territory in what is considered the largest offensive against Russia since the war began.

Ukraine's attack on Russian soil, near an important transshipping point for Russian gas to Europe, has taken the uncertainty over the gas market up another notch, sending futures contracts up to new year-highs.

On Wednesday, September contracts shot up to 39.49 euros per megawatt-hour. By Thursday, the price had dropped slightly, to 38.62 euros per MWh.

Gazprom reported a record loss of 480.6 billion rubles (about 5.6 billion US dollars) for the first half of the year. This follows last year's annual loss of 629 billion rubles (approximately 6.9 billion dollars), the first in over two decades. In 2022, Gazprom had recorded a profit of 1.23 trillion rubles.

The implementation of the Vertical Gas Corridor has commenced, aimed at ensuring diversification and energy security for natural gas supplies. Bulgartransgaz, the state gas transmission operator, signed two critical public contracts with consortia comprising Bulgarian and American companies.

Pipeline exports of natural gas to Europe from Russian energy giant Gazprom fell 2.4 percent in October from September, according to Reuters calculations based on volumes shipped through Ukraine and Turkey.

If the extraordinary energy tax on the transfer and transit of Russian natural gas through Bulgarian territory is introduced for the Republic of North Macedonia, the country will request compensation from Bulgaria and additional support from the European Union.

This was announced by the Minister of Economy of North Macedonia, Kreshnik Bekteshi, quoted by BTA.