Ukraine's top energy officials are not considering any commercial agreement that would allow Russian gas to continue to transit through the country to Europe. Existing transit agreements will expire at the end of the year.
The EU and Ukraine have previously said they will not renegotiate existing contracts, but some market participants are optimistic about the possibility of exporting to the EU through commercial deal agreements.
Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko appeared to have crossed out this option on Tuesday.
“I don't see this possibility,” he said in an interview with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. “There are currently no possible solutions.”
Russia stopped most of its pipeline supplies to Europe after the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, but some continued to transit through Ukraine, and the supply was lower than the contracted volume. These supplies cover most of the needs of countries such as Austria, Hungary, and Slovakia.
Natural gas futures contracts for the first quarter of 2025 have fallen by about 15% since the beginning of this year. This shows that the market believes there will be a mechanism to allow natural gas to continue to be transported after the agreement expires.
“We're ready to stop this,” Galushchenko said. “If anyone says this is a critical issue for winter survival and a supply security issue, that's a situation,” he added, “but I can't see this happening.”
