KIEV, August 29. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuriy Prodan denied his country might siphon Russian gas off from the volumes intended for Europe.
“These suppositions are groundless and have the sole goal of discrediting the Ukrainian route and promoting alternative ways to deliver Russian gas to EU countries such as Nord Stream, South Stream and OPAL,” the Energy and Coal Ministry quoted him as saying.
“There have been no facts of unlawful siphoning off by Ukraine either before or after,” Prodan said.
The throughput capacity of the Ukrainian gas transportation is 288 billion cubic meters at the entrance and 178.5 billion cubic meters at the exit, including 142.5 billion cubic meters to European countries and 3.5 billion cubic meters to Moldova.
Ukraine’s gas transportation system consists of 72 compressor stations, 110 production shops and 1,451 gas distribution stations. The overall length of gas pipelines operated by the company is 38,600 kilometers, including 22,200 kilometers of trunk pipelines and 16,400 kilometers of extensions.