"Russia Further Cuts Gas Transit Through Ukraine to Europe by 30%"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Russia continues to reduce the volume of gas transported through the European gas pipeline via Ukraine. This move comes as gas supply through the 'Yamal-Europe gas pipeline,' which connects Poland to Germany, has been suspended for nearly two weeks.

On the 3rd (local time), TASS news agency cited data from Slovak gas transport company Eustream, reporting that the volume of gas transported to Slovakia via Ukraine dropped by nearly 30% to 35.5 million cubic meters compared to the previous day.

Compared to the 83.8 million cubic meters transported on the 31st of last month, the Ukraine-Slovakia transport volume has fallen to less than half.

The Ukrainian gas pipeline operator OGTSU also stated on the 24th of last month that "Gazprom reduced gas transportation through Ukraine from 109 million cubic meters per day to 87.7 million cubic meters, a 19.5% decrease."

Based on this data, it is understood that Gazprom has been continuously reducing gas supply to Europe via the Ukraine transit pipeline since late last month.

According to the long-term gas transportation contract signed between Gazprom and Ukraine for 2020?2024, Gazprom was scheduled to transport 40 billion cubic meters annually (approximately 109 million cubic meters per day) starting in 2021. In 2020, the agreed volume was 65 billion cubic meters (178 million cubic meters per day).

However, Gazprom transported 55.8 billion cubic meters of gas through the Ukraine transit pipeline in 2020, reducing the volume by 37.7% compared to 89.6 billion cubic meters transported in 2019. Subsequently, from January to November 2021, Gazprom transported 38.3 billion cubic meters, further decreasing by 23.6% compared to 50.1 billion cubic meters during the same period in 2020.

Gazprom explains that it adjusts supply volumes based on purchase requests from European consumer countries, but within Europe, there is an interpretation that Russia intends to pressure German and European Union (EU) authorities to approve the Russia-Germany direct gas pipeline 'Nord Stream 2,' completed last September.

Nord Stream 2 AG, the project operator of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline wholly owned by Gazprom, submitted an application for pipeline operation approval to German authorities in early September, but the approval process continues to be delayed.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.