Slovakia and Ukraine join plan for so-called vertical gas corridor

Slovakia, Ukraine and Moldova have joined an initiative to create a natural gas transport corridor between Greece and countries to its north. Reuters reported this today. Greece agreed in 2016 with Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania to develop the infrastructure needed to establish the so-called vertical gas corridor, which would enable gas to flow in both directions between these countries.

„The vertical corridor will now connect to the Trans-Balkan pipeline and allow natural gas to be transported from Greece to Moldova and to underground storage facilities in Ukraine,“ Moldova’s Ministry of Energy said.

The Trans-Balkan pipeline is used to transport Russian gas to the Balkans via Ukraine, Romania and Moldova. Its capacity is now underused, however, because Russian gas company Gazprom redirected supplies to Turkey via the TurkStream pipeline in 2020, Reuters reported.

Gas pipeline operators in Slovakia, Ukraine and Moldova have signed a memorandum with their counterparts in Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania to support the projects needed to establish the vertical gas corridor, Greek gas company DESFA said.

„We expect that our participation in the vertical corridor initiative will enable us to make additional gas deliveries from Romania to Central Europe, totalling more than seven billion cubic metres per year,“ said Dmytro Lyppa, head of Ukraine’s gas transmission system operator.

He added that Ukraine is now working with Moldova on the terms for using an additional six million cubic metres per day of capacity on the Trans-Balkan pipeline this year.

„Cooperation to strengthen and increase the flexibility of the regional gas system is becoming a top priority,“ said DESFA CEO Maria Rita Galli.

pmh mka