Will Croatia receive less gas than planned?
The CEO of Gazprom Alexei Miller said in an interview for the Russian television station “Kanal 1” that Russia was considering reducing gas deliveries over Ukraine in favour of gas pipelines whose construction is in progress, reports Jutarnji List on April 9, 2018.
“Deliveries over Ukraine could fall to ten to fifteen billion cubic metres per year, after gas pipelines TurkStream and North Stream 2 become operational,” Miller said, rejecting speculation about the total suspension of Russian gas exports through Ukraine due to the political situation in the country.
The head of Gazprom warned that Russia had obligations towards Ukraine’s neighbours which it will respect. “The contract with Ukraine on gas deliveries will have to be revised,” said Miller, whose announcement is of great importance for Croatia, since about 50 percent of Croatia’s annual gas needs are met by imports from Russia.
In the European Union, dependence on Russian gas is even stronger, since EU members import two-thirds of their gas from Russia and Norway, while just one third is produced locally, and even that low share is expected to decline further.
One section of the TurkStream gas pipeline, whose main route leads across the Black Sea to Turkey, should go towards southern and southeastern Europe. Gazprom started the construction of the pipeline in May last year, and it should become operational in late 2019.
The acquisition of the construction permits for North Stream 2, which will connect Russia and Germany through the Baltic, is still ongoing, so the planned start of the construction early this year has been delayed. Finland and Denmark have not yet issued licences for the laying of pipes in the Baltic Sea.
The total capacity of the TurkStream pipeline will be about 30 billion cubic metres a year, while North Stream 2 will be able to transport 55 billion cubic metres of gas. On the other hand, last year Russia broke a record by carrying 93 billion cubic metres of gas through Ukraine. Hence, it is not a surprise that the Gazprom CEO says that the delivery routes will have to be harmonised with new gas pipelines.
Translated from Jutarnji List (reported by Vedran Marjanović).
