The additional revenues of Naftogaz Ukrainy from transit of gas during the temporary restriction in the work of the OPAL gas pipeline (the eastern part of the Nord Stream trunk pipeline) amounted to about $300 million, Naftogaz Head Andriy Kobolev has said.
“This year for the period, while OPAL was standing idle, the Ukrainian gas transportation system (GTS) additionally earned about $300 million,” he said at the Oil & Gas conference in Kyiv.
He stressed the importance of Ukraine’s participation in the lawsuit against OPAL.
As reported, because of disagreements in regulatory issues since the launch of Nord Stream, 50 percent of the OPAL capacity remained frozen. In autumn 2016, a decision was found: the European Commission agreed to reduce the reserve to 10 percent, and openly auction the remaining capacity.
This decision had opponents in Poland, who contested the agreement on settlement in respect of OPAL capacities. As a result, OPAL was fully used by Gazprom only in December and January. In July, the EU court quashed interim measures on this claim.
The design capacity of OPAL is 36 billion cubic meters per year.
