GTSOU says Russia steals gas within temporarily occupied territories

Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) LLC has disclosed the new details of Russia’s halt in gas transit operations via the Sokhranivka gas measuring station in Luhansk Region.

The relevant statement was made by GTSOU LLC on Telegram, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to the company, at 06:55 a.m., May 11, 2022, Russia’s Gazprom PJSC closed the gas valve on the Soyuz main gas pipeline within the territory of the Russian Federation. Thus, gas transit operations via the Sokhranivka gas metering station were halted.

At 09:04 a.m., May 11, 2022, GTSOU’s dispatch operators recorded unauthorized changes in gas transportation modes, indicating the closure of gas valves at the Novopskov compressor station located within the occupied territories, namely valves on the Soyuz main gas pipeline and the Novopskov-Shebelynka main gas pipeline, which transported gas towards Donetsk Region and Luhansk Region.

“Currently, natural gas transit operations via the Sokhranivka gas measuring station are not carried out. On May 9, 2022, GTSOU’s dispatch operators received information about the unauthorized intervention in gas transit flows from the Novopskovsk industrial site through the Soyuz gas pipeline by opening a jumper valve (17y). This information was additionally checked and verified. They recorded unauthorized transit gas offtakes from the Soyuz main gas pipeline into the gas pipelines located within the territories of Luhansk Region and Donetsk Region, which are not controlled by Ukraine,” the report states.

According to GTSOU LLC, this is actually the theft of natural gas, and the company cannot be responsible for maintaining gas transit volumes.

As the occupiers directly interfered into the operation modes of the Ukrainian gas transmission system, GTSOU LLC had to declare force majeure at the Sokhranivka entry point.

“Meanwhile, the allegations about the inability to transfer gas flows from the Sokhranivka station to the Sudzha point are untrue,” GTSOU LLC stressed.

Three 1 400 mm diameter gas pipelines (Yelets-Kremenchuk-Kryvyi Rih, Progress and Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhhorod) with a total technical transit capacity of 244 million cubic meters per day pass through the Sudzha gas measuring station. These volumes are more than twice higher than the total transit flow through the Ukrainian gas transmission system under the current contractual obligations (109.6 million cubic meters per day).

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