In 2024, Gas TSO of Ukraine LLC (GTSOU) plans to invest UAH 812.923 million in the development of the gas transmission system through depreciation charges.
This is stated in the resolution of the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC) on the approval of the GTSOU’s GTS Development Plan for 2024-2033, approved at a meeting on Wednesday.
“The main directions of the Gas Transmission System Development Plan for the first year (investment program for 2024) of the 10-year development plan are financing for: compressor stations – UAH 431,768 thousand (excluding VAT), gas distribution stations – UAH 60,226 thousand, gas pipelines – UAH 53,037 thousand,” the regulator said in its justification for the approved document.
In 2024, GTSOU also plans to spend UAH 85,996 thousand on the implementation and development of information technologies, UAH 63,200 thousand on the purchase of diagnostic and inspection devices and other devices, UAH 53,017 thousand on the modernization and purchase of vehicles, special machines and mechanisms, UAH 48,240 thousand on the purchase of production equipment, and UAH 17,439 thousand on industrial buildings and design and survey works.
The overall 10-year plan for the development of Ukraine’s GTS provides for a total funding of UAH 43.756 billion.
“In 2024, Gas TSO of Ukraine will create 167 new mobile teams to service gas distribution stations (GDS), the company’s press service reports.
According to it, the equipment maintenance and repair project is part of GTSOU’s strategy to improve the reliability and efficiency of the gas transmission system.
Currently, 43 mobile teams are working within its framework, each of which serves its own “bush” – several gas distribution stations and the adjacent linear part of gas pipelines. In 2024, the maintenance teams will service 819 GDSs.
A similar practice of gas infrastructure maintenance is used in Europe. In particular, GTSOU was guided by the experience of the Italian operator Snam, which maintains not only GDSs, but also the linear part and compressor stations in this way.
“Mobile maintenance is an efficient use of resources through the involvement of personnel in servicing, first of all, gas distribution systems. The application of this approach involves a number of measures, including a significant improvement in the condition of the gas distribution system. If the technical condition of the facility allows us to change the form of maintenance, we include it in the service area of the mobile maintenance unit,” explained Yuriy Zyabchenko, Chief Engineer of GTSOU.
To ensure that the work of mobile teams meets the standards of European operators, is automated and transparent, GTSOU requested and received technical assistance from USAID through the Energy Security Project to purchase a mobile application.
“Already in 2024, mobile teams will use the mobile application in their work as the main tool for recording information on the technical condition of equipment. This will help improve the quality of maintenance and repair of gas infrastructure and reduce the number of emergency shutdowns,” the operator reminded.
NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy in a letter sent to the government at the beginning of this year warned of the risks of balancing the gas transmission system (GTS) of Ukraine in the current heating season, which, according to the company, are associated with the problems of forming sufficient natural gas resources for these purposes by Gas Transmission System Operator Ukraine (GTSOU).
In a copy of the document available to the Interfax-Ukraine agency, Naftogaz notes that, according to the law on the natural gas market, GTSOU must purchase gas for these purposes “in a non-discriminatory and transparent manner and on market conditions.”
It notes that the current legislation in no way imposes on the participants in the natural gas market, in particular on Naftogaz, the obligation to provide the balancing service to GTSOU.
According to Naftogaz, GTSOU did not provide, as provided for by European rules, the possibility of trading gas for the needs of balancing the system on liquid exchanges or on its own trading platform.
Naftogaz recalled that the contract between GTSOU and the subsidiary of Naftogaz, Naftogaz Trading gas supply company LLC, on the provision of balancing services by the latter expires on January 19, 2022, and a new similar tender in December 2021 failed due to insufficient interest from market participants in the conditions proposed by GTSOU.
Naftogaz informs that it does not see an opportunity to participate in a new tender for the purchase of balancing services by GTSOU for 2022. According to Naftogaz, the GTS operator, by purchasing the balancing service from Naftogaz, actually resells it to gas market entities (primarily Naftogaz) and receives super profits.
Natural gas supplies to Ukraine from the EU in June 2021 amounted to 90.3 million cubic meters, which is 10.6 times more than in May (8.5 million cubic meters), the press service of Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) has said.
According to its data, the entire volume of June imports was received by backhaul from Hungary.
At the same time, total supplies to the country in the first half of 2021 fell 12.4 times (by 7.405 billion cubic meters) compared to the same period last year, to 651 million cubic meters. In particular, in the mode of a customs warehouse for storage in the UGS facilities, the country received 97 million cubic meters of gas in the six months.
Net exports of natural gas from Ukraine to European countries in June amounted to 15 million cubic meters, re-export – 7 million cubic meters. In total, in January-June-2021, some 64 million cubic meters of gas were exported, 689 million cubic meters – re-exported from the customs warehouse.
“The unique ramified infrastructure of the Ukrainian GTS allows you to quickly and flexibly respond to fluctuations in demand and, if necessary, provide additional transit capacities to European partners,” Serhiy Makogon, the head of GTSOU, said.
At the same time, he stressed, in the absence of a long-term transit contract, the infrastructure of the Ukrainian gas transportation system will be optimized, and the European market will lose these maneuverable capacities, becoming dependent on the Gazprom monopoly.
“The threat of building bypass gas pipelines and monopolizing supply routes is a threat to all Europeans from the point of view of energy and economic security,” Makogon summed up.
Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine LLC (GTSOU) will continue the program of equipment renewal by purchasing 272 units of motor vehicles and engineering vehicles during the year.
According to the company, it plans to acquire 122 Reno Duster, 61 Reno Dokker vehicles, 20 passenger buses, two shift vehicles for difficult terrain, four auto labs for electrical measurements, 25 wheeled excavators, five wheeled chain excavators, 13 tracked excavators, seven truck cranes, 18 bulldozers, two drilling rigs and one pipe carrier.
Earlier, it purchased 126 Mitsubishi L200 pickup trucks and eight Toyota Camry through the ProZorro site.
Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine LLC ensures uninterrupted operation of the Ukrainian GTS, which is integrated into the European gas transportation system.
Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU), which replaced Ukrtransgaz as the operator of the Ukrainian gas transmission system on January 1, 2020, has reported continuation of Russian gas transit under the new agreement reached between Russia’s Gazprom and NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy in furtherance of the previous ten-year contract.
“We have transported the first cubic meters of gas to the EU under the new gas contract consistent with European regulations. The gas transmission system is operating normally,” the operator said in a statement on Facebook on Wednesday.
