CEO of NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy Yuriy Vitrenko has said that the record-high increase in spot prices for gas is linked to the restriction of supplies to Europe by Russia’s Gazprom.
“We believe that the price increase that we are seeing on the market now is the result of a de facto special campaign on the part of Gazprom, which simply restricts gas supplies to Europe,” he told Interfax-Ukraine on the sidelines of the YES Brainstorming 2021 forum held in Kyiv on Sept. 10.
According to him, to prevent such speculations in the future, EU representatives should achieve unblocking of other companies’ access to transit through Ukraine and gas supplies from Central Asia.
“Thus, we hope that there will be more gas in Europe and, accordingly, prices will be lower,” Vitrenko said.
Earlier, Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) reported that the transit of natural gas through the country in January-August fell by 15.2%, to 29.5 billion cubic meters (121.4 million cubic meters per day). In addition, Gazprom booked only 4% (0.65 million cubic meters per day) of the proposed 15 million cubic meters a day of additional guaranteed transit capacity through the Ukrainian gas transportation system for September at an auction held in August, which is why this month transit will decrease to the bottom limit of 109 million cubic meters per day provided in the contract.
According to GTSOU Head Serhiy Makogon, the result of such a transit policy of the Russian monopoly was a record-high rise in gas prices at European hubs.
“Ukraine constantly offers additional transit capacities to supply additional volumes of gas to the EU. However, Gazprom, unfortunately, constantly refuses them. It seems that such behavior of Gazprom not only stimulates further growth of gas prices in the EU, but also sends extremely transparent signals to Europe that additional gas volumes are possible only through Nord Stream 2,” he said.
As reported, the price of the nearest (October) futures on the TTF spot gas index on the ICE Futures exchange on Sept. 10 afternoon exceeded the level of $700 per 1,000 cubic meters and several times reached a new local maximum of 57.79 euros per kWh, or $707 per 1,000 cubic meters, according to the exchange data.
In August, the average value of a day-ahead contract on TTF was $533, in early September it was already $639 per 1,000 cubic meters. Since the beginning of the year, the average price of a day-ahead contract on TTF was $338 per 1,000 cubic meters.
The main factor behind the price increase is the low level of gas reserves in underground storage facilities in Europe with limited gas flow through pipelines and in liquefied form.
A little more than a month remains before the transition from pumping to gas extraction from underground storage facilities, and the level of reserves has barely exceeded two thirds. On Sept. 9 morning, inventories were loaded by 69.74%, 15.7 percentage points below the five-year average.
Since the end of August, Gazprom has stopped pumping gas into the German underground storage facilities Rehden and Katharina. It continues limited injections to the Haidach facility in Austria, the Jemgum facility in Germany and Bergermeer in the Netherlands.
