OGTSU working on connecting Central and Southern European gas markets
GTS Operator of Ukraine LLC (GTSOU) in order to prevent possible price shocks in individual isolated markets, offers access to European operators to significant underground gas storage facilities (UGS) of Ukraine, and is also working on connecting the Central European and Southern European markets.
This was reported by the company with reference to Head of the department for work with customers of the OGTSU Andriy Prokofiev.
"According to the European Commission's plan, from 2027 Russian gas will no longer be part of the EU's gas balance. Ukraine's gas infrastructure can and should smooth out possible shocks for the most vulnerable markets," he said during the Flame conference in Amsterdam last week.
According to Prokofiev, Ukraine is at the crossroads of routes between the south and the north and is ready to provide its infrastructure for seasonal storage and transportation of gas. Given the above factors, the Ukrainian Gas Transmission System Operator is working to ensure that all routes are used in the future and gas can come from all sources.
He also recalled the flexibility of the Ukrainian GTS, which, thanks to the large capacity of exit points on the EU border, can quickly ensure the transportation of significant volumes of gas from storage facilities. Prokofiev explained that such flexibility is especially relevant in the context when European markets are reorienting to LNG supplies as the main source of the resource.
As added by the OGTSU, the expected EU refusal from pipeline Russian gas by 2027 has caused European countries to switch to LNG supplies, change gas reception points and restructure transportation routes, and currently tectonic shifts are taking place in the European market, which are prompting GTS operators of European countries to rethink their role in the new conditions.
In turn, according to the Director of the OGTSU Representation in the EU Pavlo Stanchak the Ukrainian GTS has the potential to become a tool for unifying markets and strengthening the EU's energy security. In his opinion, in the context of increasing diversification of gas supply sources and increasing the role of LNG supplies, Europe needs flexible transportation routes and increased storage security, and it is these tasks that the Ukrainian gas infrastructure can solve.
"In 2024, we started working on a new role – the Ukrainian GTS should combine different markets. For example, we are working with partners on the issue of transporting gas from LNG terminals in northern and southern Europe to Ukraine," Stanchak said at the Gazterm conference in Poland.
GTS Operator of Ukraine LLC is a natural monopoly that provides transportation of natural gas to consumers in Ukraine and the EU countries. Starting from January 1, 2020, OGTSU is a certified operator of the gas transportation system of Ukraine, completely independent of vertically integrated enterprises. According to the results of 2024, OGTSU received over UAH 2.8 billion in net profit and over UAH 38.5 billion in revenue.
On October 27, 2023, during the implementation of the corporate reform, 100% of the share in the charter capital of OGTSU was transferred to the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine.
