- In November of last year, "Ukrtransgaz", the French company "Engie", and its affiliated company in Ukraine "Engie Energy Management Ukraine" signed contracts for transportation and storage of natural gas, says Mykhailo Gonchar. - Successful test supplies of natural gas were carried out at the end of 2016. Process, as they say, has started. So, there is not only "Naftogaz" on the Ukrainian gas market, but also another company, which independently imports natural gas. The news is good, because there will be no absolute monopoly on the market.
Yet in 2015, it was said that in 2016 the European daughter of the American company "Stone Trail" would start direct gas supplies to Ukraine. But for some reason this event did not take place. Unlike the Americans, the French took the risk and appeared on our market, becoming pioneers. This means that the gas market begins to take shape.
Same was with reverse supplies at the time. The first appeared the German company wich signed a contract with us in 2012. Today, "Naftogaz" has more than 15 such suppliers. I think "Engie" came, and everyone else will monitor how things go, and gradually other European suppliers will work here.
-Whose gas is supplied to us by the French? Is it Russian?
- The physical origin of this gas actually means nothing. It is clear that it could be both Russian and Central Asian gas. Russian gas, which crossed the border between Ukraine and the EU, is not Russian yet; it belongs to a particular company, which can do with it what it wants to do: either deliever to France, or leave in Ukraine.
- At what price does the French company import gas to our market?
- I think that gas price is competitive, because nobody would buy it then; it would be bought from "Naftogaz". Commercial companies stick to the weighted average market price. It is important to take into account situation on the internal gas market, since we are talking about gas sells on it. In this sense, the price is attractive, because it is equal to the parity of import prices.
- Is this company's market share substantial now?
- Actually, it is not large, supply volumes are scanty. Daily supply is 0.4 million cubic metres, annual would be 146 million cubic meters. For comparison, last year Ukraine consumed 31 billion cubic meters of blue fuel. Likely, the company will work in such mode this year, and then evaluate whether it is worth to expand the business.
- Why did European companies not make direct deliveries of gas to Ukraine before?
- There was one problem - access to pipeline capacities, because it was necessary to pump this gas to end users. Due to the fact that today "Naftogaz" is in the process of separating the pipeline business from other businesses, this deal became possible. There is sufficient amount of available capacities in our pipelines now, because domestic gas consumption has been reduced, transit has decreased. The company "Engie" took advantage of that.
Lesya YASINCHUK
Source: http://www.expres.ua
