The ongoing decrease in physical flows of Russian natural gas through Ukraine and Turkey in January 2023 indicates that traders no longer see the risks of Europe passing this winter, the former head of the Ukrainian GTS Operator Serhiy Makohon said.
He wrote about it on his page in Facebook.
Application for transit of Russian gas through the Ukrainian GTS on January 19 reduced by 25% (8.2 million cubic meters) compared to January 18 – up to 24.4 million cubic meters, including in Europe goes 19 million cubic meters, the rest – to Moldova, said Makogon.
“This shows that Western traders do not see the risks of passing this winter, so they are not willing to import gas at any price. And when gas prices on stock exchanges fell to $600 per thousand cubic meters, traders refused to order additional volumes under existing long-term contracts with Gazprom in favor of purchase on the exchange,” explained the former head of UGTSU.
“And the Freeport LNG terminal, which is responsible for 20% of U.S. LNG exports and has been under repair since June, will also start working very soon. Therefore, Gazprom’s profits will clearly be unenviable. The russian energy blackmail did not pass,” he added.
As reported, since June 2022, the transit of Russian gas through Ukrainian GTS was about 42 million cubic meters, from January-2023 it began to gradually decline against the background of warm weather, high levels of stocks in the EU UGS and declined to a 16-month low stock prices in Europe.
