Ukraine pursues energy austerity, boosts gas pipeline security

Ukraine’s PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk told the Ukrainian parliament (Rada) on June 17 that the government has created a special Energy Crisis Headquarters to coordinate all efforts directed towards conserving energy and monitoring energy resources after Russia has formally stopped supplying its natural gas to Ukraine. He also announced that the Cabinet is going to prepare a law on austerity measures in the energy sector that will enable the government to enhance its monitoring of energy use in Ukraine.



Yastenyuk also reported that the government will adopt a draft law that will enable Ukraine to jointly operate and modernize its gas transportation system (GTS) together with EU member-countries. Just three hours after his speech in the Rada, an accident happened at a GTS asset in the Poltava Oblast, a central region of Ukraine. A section of the Urengoy-Uzhgorod gas pipeline exploded due to depressurization, according to the State Emergency Service. No interruption of supplies to Europe resulted from the accident, according to the Ukrainian side. The information was confirmed by the Slovakian Eustream gas operator.



The preliminary cause that is being investigated is sabotage, according to Interfax sources in law enforcement agencies. The interim version of the accident is an explosive was detonated at the base of pipeline support, according to a June 18 statement by Internal Affairs Minister Arsen Avakov. Naftogaz of Ukraine (NAFTO), the company that controls the pipeline, reportedly increased security of all GPS sites.



Gazprom’s top manager Vitali Markelov said further accidents in the Ukrainian GTS may happen in the future since Ukraine has failed to modernize it, Interfax reported on June 18. “The pipe is aging, causing accidents”, Markelov commented. Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili suggested his own version of the accident. “Putin's handwriting is not changing. In January 2005, pipeline that supplied Russian gas to Georgia, as well as the main power line (from Russia) were blown up by ‘unknown terrorists’ in several places. Georgia remained without heat and light in the winter, in record-cold weather ... We have rebuilt our energy system and soon became independent from our unreliable neighbor,” Saakashvili commented on his Facebook page.



Alexander Paraschiy: While it’s true that the Ukrainian GTS is old and needs modernization, the timing of the pipeline accident naturally generates a lot of hypotheses surrounding the “hand of Moscow”. It’s clear that Russia is a core beneficiary of such an accident. Meanwhile, it was revealing that Gazprom rushed to comment that the incident demonstrated the lack of reliability of Ukraine as a gas partner for the EU, though the statement does not necessarily mean that Russia was involved. Thus far, the Ukrainian government is doing right things in its attempt to decrease dependence on Russian gas, and we believe that it will be able to free itself from the unrealistic 2009 contract with Gazprom with the help of Russian gas supplies from the EU.

Источник: Конкорд Капитал