Ukraine's Naftogaz said it cannot verify claims by Russian energy giant Gazprom of the technical impossibility of transiting gas from the Sokhranivka entry point in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine to the Sudzha transit point, the biggest of Ukraine's two crossing points, the Executive Director of Naftogaz, Yury Vitrenko, said Wednesday.
Vitrenko wrote on his Twitter account that Gazprom had transited 27.5 million cubic meters of gas per day in October 2020 due to maintenance on the Russian side.
'Back then Gazprom gave 165 million cubic meters per day to Sudzha -1.5x more than the total transit last month,' Vitrenko said.
Gazprom on Tuesday confirmed that it was notified by the Ukrainian operator of the termination of gas transit through the Sokhranivka entry point starting Wednesday.
Some 30% of the gas deliveries to Europe are transited through Sokhranivka. The point has a natural gas delivery capacity of around 30 million cubic meters per day.
The Ukrainian Gas Transmission System Operator offered to move the affected flow to the Sudzha point, Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov said on Tuesday.
However, he said it is technically impossible to transport the volume of natural gas transmitted through Sokhranivka to the Sudzha transit point.
Kupriyanov also conveyed that Ukraine warned of the reduction of natural gas from the volume of Russian gas set for Europe if Russia continues to deliver gas to Sokhranivka.
By Murat Temizer
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr