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Gas transit from Russia via Ukraine down by 35% in October — operator

By November 1, transit via Ukraine once again decreased to 57 mln cubic meters per day, chief executive of Operator of GTS of Ukraine Sergey Makogon informed

KIEV, November 1. /TASS/. Natural gas transit from Russia via Ukraine decreased by 35% as of November 1 compared with the data for October 1, to 57 million cubic meters per day, chief executive of Operator of GTS (Gas Transmission System) of Ukraine Sergey Makogon reported via Facebook.

"As of October 1, transit through Ukraine dropped to 86 mln cubic meters per day. At the same time, Gazprom pays for the transit capacity of 109 mln cubic meters. With such transportation volumes, Gazprom will undersupply about 5 bln cubic meters to the EU by the end of May. By November 1, transit via Ukraine once again decreased to 57 mln cubic meters per day," he wrote.

On October 1, Gazprom began supplying gas to Hungary under a long-term contract, signed on September 27, through the Balkan Stream gas pipeline (an extension of the Turkish Stream) and pipelines in South-Eastern Europe.

In turn, Kiev voiced its disappointment with this fact and asked the European Commission to check the compliance of this agreement with European energy legislation. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban rejected Ukraine's criticism of the agreement, saying he could not accept Kiev's point of view on these issues.

In December 2019, Moscow and Kiev agreed to extend the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine for the period from 2020 to 2024, with an option of extending the agreement for another 10 years. The contract provides for the transit of 65 billion cubic meters of gas in 2020 and 40 billion cubic meters annually from 2021 to 2024. The transit arrangement assumes a "pump or pay" principle, when the transit fee is charged in the amount of the booked capacity, even if the actual pumping turns out to be less. In 2020, transit of Russian gas to Europe through the Ukrainian gas transmission system amounted to 55.8 billion cubic meters, which was the lowest level in the last 30 years.

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