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Ukraine seeks European partner to manage gas transit network

Xinhua, January 5, 2017 Adjust font size:

Kiev is seeking a partner from the European Union (EU) to jointly manage Ukraine's natural gas transit system, a senior Ukrainian energy official announced here on late Wednesday.

"We are ready to share a part of our business to ensure that Ukraine will remain a gas transit country after 2019," Andrey Kobolev, head of Ukraine's state-run energy firm Naftogaz, told local 5 TV-channel.

Currently, Kiev is holding talks with three European companies over managing Ukraine's gas transportation network, Kobolev said, without giving further details.

In 2019, Ukraine's gas transit agreement with Russia's Gazprom will expire. Afterward, Russia plans to switch its gas transit route for European countries to the Turkish Stream and Nord Stream routes, bypassing Ukraine.

Ukraine has Europe's second largest gas transportation network, consisting of 37,600 kms of gas transit pipelines and 12 underground storage facilities.

With a capacity to pump 146 billion cubic meters of gas a year to the EU and Moldova, it carries about 15 percent of Russian gas consumed by European countries. Endi