The Verkhovna Rada has adopted a bill on the resumption of Ukrainian natural gas exports to Poland. If the president signs document no. 8657 “On the basis of natural gas market operations (concerning gas production enterprises),” the national stock company Naftohaz of Ukraine will start acting upon the contract signed with the Polish state oil-gas company PGNiG on October 26, 2004, concerning the supply of the gas produced in Central Asia and/or in Ukraine. According to the Deputy Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Volodymyr Makukha, in 2011 the Ukrainian gas monopolist is likely to export to Poland nearly 200 million cubic meters of gas. We remind our readers that all the gas produced in Ukraine is currently sold to locals.
What caused the resumption of the Ukrainian gas exports to Poland and what does this mean for Ukraine? The Day asked the director of energy programs at Nomos Center Mykhailo HONCHAR:
“The resumption of gas exports to Poland is an attempt made by the government to correct and resolve the artificial problem that was previously created in Ukrainian-Polish relations. After the law on the gas market was approved some people in Ukraine tried to benefit from it and rewrite the export contract signed with the Polish company. I think it was done with the purpose of raising the export price of the gas or switching to a private buyer. Now the government has realized that this approach was wrong and is trying to remedy the situation.
“Ukrainian-Polish energy projects will soon speed up the resumption of gas exports. First of all, this concerns the project of producing gas at the Sakhalin deposit by the Ukrainian-Polish joint enterprise Devon and the completion of the Odesa-Brody gas pipeline up to the Polish town of Plock. In all probability, there also will be projects pertaining to prospecting for and producing shale gas in western Ukraine. By the way, this region needs and permits the introduction of the format of trilateral cooperation between Ukraine, Poland and the US. The projects for exporting electricity to Poland are very promising as well.
“However, there’s also a long-term aim behind this step. It consists in creating the preconditions for re-enabling Ukraine to export its own gas to Europe. Taking into account the growing price of Russian gas and the fact that internal public utilities prices don’t correspond to the economically grounded rate this step will allow for a reduction of the deficit of the national stock company which, according to Mykola Azarov, is around eight billion hryvnias. However, before the Ukrainian gas appears on the European market Gazprom has to cancel the discriminatory article on the prohibition of the gas re-export provided in the contract signed in 2009. Without this condition the Russian monopolist will consider the Ukrainian export to the EU as a contract violation which will serve a pretext for a new gas war. If Ukraine exports the gas to Poland this risk doesn’t exist since the gas will be supplied by the gas distribution networks at Ukrainian-Polish border that aren’t the gas mains.”
