Ukraine has urged Europeans several times to interrupt their gas purchases from Russia. What about his side? Does she buy Russian gas and could she remain without the transit of this one from Russia to the west?
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gas and its use are at the heart of the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has repeatedly urged Europeans to extend their economic and petroleum economic sanctions and to interrupt their purchases in Moscow.
The European Union (EU) has for the time being refused. Several countries of which, in particular, Germany, have said that they are not able, in the short term, to do without Russian gas. What about Ukraine, which ensures the transit of part of the Russian gas to the EU? Is it, too, dependent on its neighbor for its supplies or could it remain without the transit of the gas from Russia to the west?
to what extent is the Ukrainian economy dependent gas?
Ukraine is one of the European countries that consume the most energy. Gas represents almost a third of this consumption, followed by coal (30 %) and nuclear (21 %), of which it is the seventh world producer. If it produces part of the gas it uses, Ukraine is however historically dependent on the outside for its supplies: in 2013, it imported almost 60 % of the gas it consumed.
This import dependency, however, tended to be reduced. Ukraine’s energy needs have dropped considerably for twenty years, after a Already vertiginous fall in the ten years which followed its independence. Measures against waste of energy were taken after 1991. The successive economic crises which struck the country, in particular that of 2009, as well as the conflict in Donbass, from 2014, also reduced economic activity and Industrial production. Finally, the loss of Crimea, from part of the regions of Louhansk and Donetsk, in the east of the country, and the damage caused by the war also mechanically lowered its consumption.
In 2019, its gas needs had lowered in relation to 2006, and its national production covered 70 % of its needs. For the remaining 30 %, kyiv continues to import.
Ukraine buy gas from Russia?
Heritage of the Soviet era and the period when Ukraine benefited from reduced price on gas, the country is historically very dependent on Moscow for its supply. In 2013, kyiv bought 92 % of its gas imported to the Russian giant Gazprom. In 2016, this percentage fell to zero. After the annexation of Crimea and the gas crisis which opposed the two countries in 2014, Ukraine has, in fact, stopped its purchases in Moscow and has not been supplied directly with Russia since 2016.
She is now buying her gas to European countries , notably Slovakia, Poland and Hungary. These supplies are the fruit of what are called “inverted flows”, that is to say that go from west to east, while gas transit historically from east to west.
These “inverted flows” from the EU have long been much more expensive, for Ukraine, than the gas sold by Russia. In 2014, however, Russia ended the price reduction granted to the Ukrainian government of Viktor Ianoukovitch and made the purchase to Europeans more economically interesting for kyiv.
These flows can be physical (gas is really sent from a European country to Ukraine in a gas pipeline), but also “virtual”. The volume of gas bought by Ukraine does not really make the opposite path, it is taken by kyiv from the gas flow which transits on its soil between Russia and the EU. Anyway, the result is the same: the gas imported by Ukraine may be bought from European countries, it is nevertheless largely of Russian gas – although it is difficult to know in What proportion.