Gazprom resumes pipeline operations, Europe wants to send surplus gas to Ukraine

On June 12, Russian energy giant Gazprom announced that it had resumed gas supplies via the Turkish Stream pipeline after completing planned annual maintenance.

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Turkish Stream gas pipeline. (Source: Vostok Photo)

“The planned maintenance of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, scheduled for June 5-12, has been completed. Gas transportation has resumed today,” the statement said.

Gazprom had previously stressed that the scheduled maintenance was agreed upon in advance by all interested parties.

* On the same day, Bloomberg reported that European officials are planning to transport excess natural gas to Ukraine's Bilche-Volytsko-Uhersky underground gas storage (UGS) facility, located 96 km from the border with Poland.

UGS was built during the Soviet era and has a capacity to store 17 billion cubic meters of gas. During the period 1991-2021, this facility was actively used by European companies.

Currently European UGS are more than 70% filled, so business leaders are considering the possibility of sending excess gas to Ukraine.

According to analysts, Kiev's storage facility will help balance supply and demand in the European market in the second half of summer 2023.

Kiev has fixed-rate storage, which makes it a very attractive and competitive option, noted Marco Saalfrank, CEO of European trading at Swiss company Axpo.

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