Agrarian ministers of Moldova, Romania and Ukraine in online talks on Friday agreed to exchange information on the amount of wheat to be transported through solidarity corridors, the official website of Moldova’s agrarian ministry reported.
“The purpose of the meeting of the three parties was to agree on a way to organize in order to optimize the transit of grain coming from Ukraine so that Romanian agrarians can transport grain, release warehouses and export products of the new harvest,” the report said.
According to the press service of the Ukrainian ministry, Minister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Solskyi paid special attention to the discussion of transit of Ukrainian agricultural products on the territory of Moldova and Romania.
The trilateral meeting was preceded by negotiations of Romanian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture Vladimir Bol with his Moldovan counterpart Petre Dea. They discussed Moldovan-Romanian cooperation in the agro-industrial sector, mechanisms of financial and non-financial incentives for agricultural producers, as well as the portfolio of projects that are already implemented and planned for implementation.
From Monday, April 24, Romania will start sealing vehicles carrying Ukrainian agricultural products in transit, Ukrtransbesecurity reported in a telegram on Sunday following a meeting between Ukrainian Agrarian Policy Minister Mykola Solskyi and his Romanian counterpart Petru Dea.
“The Romanian customs authorities will install seals on trucks with Ukrainian agricultural transit goods,” the release said.
According to it, it is important for carriers transiting through Romania to prepare a truck for sealing and to arrive at the border only after fulfilling the relevant conditions.
Earlier this week, similar requirements for the sealing of transit Ukrainian agricultural road freight were introduced by Poland
Romania, Hungary and Slovakia will not limit the transit of agricultural products from Ukraine, but negotiations continue on the issue of imports into the countries’ territory. Imports into Poland in transit mode will resume with a T1 declaration, with the use of the SENT system to track the movement of cargo through Poland and cargo seals, said Agrarian Policy Minister Mykola Solsky at an extraordinary meeting of the Coordinating Council under the Agrarian Policy Ministry on Tuesday evening.
According to him, shipments of agricultural products, which will be delivered to Poland in transit, will continue to move across the country’s territory at 00:00 on April 21, accompanied by Polish customs officers.
The issue of transit by rail with the transshipment from wide-rail wagons (for tracks 1520 mm) to narrow-rail (for tracks 1435 mm) is still open. Market participants are expected to receive details of the procedure tomorrow at the Coordinating Council of the Ministry of Agriculture, which is scheduled for 10:30 a.m.
The ban on imports of agricultural products in accordance with the list in the annex to the order of the Minister of Development and Technology of Poland Waldemar Buda from April 15, 2023 has not been canceled.
Earlier it was reported that Ukraine and Poland agreed on the resumption of transit of banned for importation agricultural products: it will work at night from April 20 to April 21, 2023. Additional control measures will be applied to the transit. According to the Ministry of Agriculture of Poland, customs, tax and other services will accompany the transport to its destination. In addition, the SENT mechanism and electronic seals will be applied, by means of which each consignment of goods will be tracked.
Poland on April 15, after the farmers’ congress, made a unilateral decision to temporarily prohibit the import of any agricultural products from Ukraine until June 30, 2023. This happened despite the fact that on July 7, a bilateral agreement was reached with Ukraine on the temporary suspension of exports of only four crops – wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower, while transit continued, but with stricter conditions, which the parties planned to agree on quickly.
Hungary and Slovakia made similar decisions afterwards.
Ukraine and Poland have agreed on the resumption of transit of Ukrainian agricultural products. It will work at night from April 20 to 21, 2023, according to the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.
Additional control measures will be applied to the transit, of which market participants will be notified publicly and in working order in the near future.
Gas transit through Ukraine increased again after completing the usual weekend decline – to the standard level.
UKRAINIAN TRANSIT
“Ukraine’s GTS Operator (OGTSU) accepted a 42.4 million cubic meters transit request from Gazprom for Tuesday, the Ukrainian company said. The nomination for Monday was 40 million cubic meters. The capacity is claimed for only one of the two entry points into the country’s GTS, the Sudzha gas metering station. No bid was accepted for the corridor through the Sohranovka gas metering station.
EUROPEAN MARKET
Electricity generation from wind turbines in Europe last week already accounted for 21% of the region’s needs. Monday’s figure is roughly the same (20.8 percent), according to the WindEurope Association.
On Monday the price of gas rose by 4%. The day-ahead contract at the TTF hub in the Netherlands closed at $481 per thousand cubic meters.
The gap in LNG prices in Asia compared to Europe is noticeable. The May JKM Platts futures (Japan Korea Marker, reflecting the spot market value of cargoes shipped to Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan) traded at $447; the North West Europe LNG futures (LNG North West Europe Marker) was $426.
RESERVES IN EUROPE
Europe’s current gas reserve level is 56.02%, 22 percentage points above the average for the same dates over the past five years, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).
Gas reserves rose by a symbolic 0.05 percentage points on the weekend of March 26. The inventory build-up has continued for five days in a row.
European LNG receiving terminals operated at an average capacity of 63 percent in February and have been showing 66 percent utilization since early March. US STORAGE STOCK.
The state of U.S. UGS inventories is becoming increasingly important to the global market as the country actively ramps up exports.
During the next reporting week, reserves dropped by 2 bln cubic meters – a noticeable increase (60%) from the normal level at that time.
The current inventory level is 39%, 23 percentage points above the average for the last five years, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Freeport LNG, the largest U.S. LNG plant, has restarted all three liquefaction lines. This reduces the surplus gas in the U.S. market and increases global supply.
Gazprom’s bid for gas transit through Ukraine has increased to the maximum for the last month (since January 15).
“The operator of Ukraine’s gas transmission system (OGTSU) said it had accepted a transit request from Gazprom for Wednesday in the amount of 35.8 million cubic meters. The figure on Tuesday was 30.8 million cubic meters. The capacity is claimed for only one of the two entry points into the country’s GTS, the Suja gas metering station. No application has been accepted for the corridor through the Sohranovka gas metering station.
The current level of gas reserves in Europe has fallen to 65.66 percent, 20 percentage points above the average for the same date in the last five years, according to the Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) association. During the Feb. 13 gas day, inventories were down 0.45 percentage points.
Warm weather in October, November and January as well as austerity measures have resulted in UGS reserve levels now at their highest ever recorded. This strengthens confidence of the authorities in the successful passing of the winter.
Europe’s LNG receiving terminals operated at 62 percent capacity in January, nearly the same in the first days of February. At the same time the level of LNG inventories in the tanks of receiving terminals is decreasing more and more. This suggests that the inflow of new LNG cargoes to the region is falling amid low prices and competition from Asia.
The day-ahead contract at the TTF hub in the Netherlands added just over a percent in the past 24 hours, closing at $592 per thousand cubic meters.
The “Asian premium” is stable. – gap between gas prices in Asia and the price of LNG supplies to Europe. March futures for JKM Platts (Japan Korea Marker, reflecting the spot market price for cargoes supplied to Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan) traded at $639; futures for LNG supplied to North West Europe (LNG North West Europe Marker) traded at $582.
The state of U.S. UGS reserves is becoming increasingly important to the global market as the country is actively ramping up exports.
In the regular reporting week (ended Feb. 3), reserves fell by 6.1 bcm. For the first time since the beginning of the year, weekly withdrawals exceeded the average for the last five years.
The current reserve level is 49%, 5 percentage points above the five-year average, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA).
February promises to be a cold month in the country, which will lead to an increase in energy spending for heating. On the other hand – America’s largest LNG plant, Freeport LNG, is still delaying its restart after an accident, leaving gas that was supposed to go to exports in the domestic market.
So far, the EIA has projected that storage inventories will fall by 60 billion cubic meters this winter (the average for the last five years). At the end of March, natural gas volumes in storage are projected to be 40 billion cubic meters. This is 8% below the five-year average.
