Russian fuel exports to Europe: Herbal Flow Ukraine fuel stopped at the end of the agreement
Russian fuel to several European countries was interrupted on New Year’s day after Ukraine refused to renegotiate a public shipping agreement amid the war with Moscow.
Ukraine’s unwillingness to renew the five-year-old transit agreement aims to rob Russia of revenue that Moscow can use to fund its war, but the move will likely create an energy crisis in Eastern Europe, with Transnistria – a breakaway Moldovan region – cutting heat and hot water supplies to households.
“It ended what Russia’s domination once in the EU energy market,” Jonah Hull de Al Jazeera said, he reported through the capital of Ukraine kyiv. Before the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia provided about 35% of European pipe fuel exports.
With the closure of the oldest fuel direction in Russia to Europe, which has been in operation for more than 40 years, the percentage of Russia is reducing to less than 10%. Another Türkiye pipeline still fuel matter to countries such as Hungary.
So, how will turning off the taps during the height of the winter season affect countries, particularly in Eastern Europe and what could happen next?
Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Wednesday that gas supplies to Europe had been halted at 8am local time (05:00 GMT) after Ukraine’s state-owned oil and gas company Naftogaz refused to renew its latest five-year transit deal.
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s Energy Minister Gaulushchenko said in a statement: “We arrested the transit of Russian gas. This is an ancient event. Russia loses its markets, it will go through monetary losses. Europe has already made the resolution to abandon Russian gas.
The last contract first signed in 2020 under which Ukraine paid shipping costs. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had warned that Kyiv would not renew the transit agreement amid the non-stop war.
Many European countries began to reduce their reliance on Russian gas after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
At its peak, Moscow’s share of European gas imports stood at 35 percent, but has fallen to about 8 percent.
The European Union earned less than 14 billion cubic meters (BCM) of fuel from Russia to Ukraine as of Dec. 1, compared with 65 bcm according to the year the contract started in 2020.
The fuel is sent through the Urangoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipe from the Soviet Siberian era in Sudzha, a city in the Kursk region in Russia that is now under the Ukrainian army. The gas moves through Ukraine in Slovakia. There, the pipe is divided into branches that supply food in the Czech Republic and Austria.
The transit agreement brought monetary returns for Russia and Ukraine.
The Ukrainian media cited Serhii Makohon, former head of the Ukrainian operator of GTS, believing that Russia obtained a significantly high sum of the transit agreement that Ukraine.
Makohon estimated that Russia won $ five billion a year, also a number reported through the Reuters news agency. On the other hand, Ukraine earned 800 million dollars “but the maximum of this cash is spent on transit itself. The treasure [of Ukraine] receives $ 100-200 million in taxes and dividends”, was summoned through Ukrainska Pravda , Makohon.
Bloomberg estimated that Russia’s income is even higher, at $ 6. 5 billion consisting of the year.
Austria, Slovakia and Moldova were relying on the transit route for their power supply.
Austria won the maximum of his fuel from Russia to Ukraine, while Slovakia received around 3 BCM through the year of direction, so he rose to approximately two thirds of his demand.
The Austrian power regulator E-Control said it was ready for a transfer of origin and not face any interruption.
The Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Wednesday that the source of source would charge the nation of Eastern Europe in the many millions of dollars in the source of public shipping and high prices for loading the importation of another gas.
Fico said he would accumulate fuel charges in Europe. The Slovaco Ministry of Economy said that the country will have to support the load value of 177 million euros ($ 184 million) for receiving fuel through choice routes.
Moldova is perhaps the most vulnerable. Russia has shipped approximately 2 BCM of fuel through Ukraine to the Moldova region, the breakaway region of Moldova every year and every year since 2022. Transnistria, which borders Ukraine, then promoted electricity, generated through Russian fuel, in regions controlled through the Moldovan government.
Moldova has already declared an emergency state on the drawing of nearby fuel scarcity. The president of Moldovan, Maia Sandu, blamed Gazprom for not a path of choice, and said that this winter in Moldova would be “hard” without Russian fuel.
However, Prime Minister Moldavian Dorin Reance said Moldova has fuel supply resources.
On Wednesday, Transnetria, which is home to 450,000 people, cuts off heat and hot water to homes.
Ukraine itself uses Russian traffic gas, according to the European Commission, which added that the block was ready for cutting.
The pipeline passing through Ukraine was one of the last functional routes used to export Russian gas. Other pipelines were shut in the wake of the 2022 Ukraine war, including the Yamal-Europe pipeline through Belarus and the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea which sent gas to Germany.
Russia still uses Turkstream pipelines in the Black Sea bed to export gases. The pipeline has two lines, one feeds the domestic market in Turkiye, while the other supplies consumers in Central Europe, adding Hungary and Serbia.
However, Turkstream has an annual capacity, which amounts to 31. 5bcm for the two combined lines.
Europe has tried its dependence on Russian fuel, since it bought Liquefied Herbal (LNG) fuel in Qatar and the United States, along the fuel of the channel in Norway.
“The European foaming infrastructure is flexible enough to supply non-Russian fuel to the routes of choice in Central and Eastern Europe. It has been strengthened with vital new LNG import capabilities since 2022,” said Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, spokesperson for the European Commission.
A giant power provider in Slovakia, SPP said in a on Wednesday that it was ready for the transition and would supply its consumers with choice routes, basically from Germany and also Hungary. However, he added that he would face further prices in transit prices.
According to Austrian energy regulator E-Control, Slovakia could receive gas from Hungary, roughly a third from Austria and the remaining supply from the Czech Republic and Poland. The Czech Republic has also said it can provide Slovakia with gas transit and storage capacities.
Moldovan Power Corporate Engocom issued A on Tuesday saying that Moldova can meet 38% of its energy desires through domestic production, adding 10% from renewables. Engocom added that Transnistria would import the remaining 62% from neighboring Romania.