Return of Ukrainian gas consortium

Victor Yanukovich, possibly next president of Ukraine, made a statement regarding so-called gas consortium. According to Interfax news agency he said that he will make a proposal to create a consortium to manage existing gas transit system in Ukraine, and to conduct system’s reconstruction in order to raise the volumes of gas transit.

These goals for the consortium seem to have little to do with reality. First, raising volumes of gas transit doesn’t depend on Ukrainians’ efforts now. Due to economic downturn, the demand for Russian gas in Europe is falling. In 2009, only 95 billions of cubic meters of gas was transported from Russia through Ukraine towards EU, which is 24.4 bns lower than in previous year. Total capacity of Ukrainian gas transit system is at least 140 bns per year. Obviously, it is not necessary to expand these capacities, especially if we consider that Gazprom’s gas production is falling down.

Second. The funniest thing here is that the consortium had already been created long time ago, during late Kuchma’s era. Literally the goal for it was the same. However, the child was born dead – the consortium didn’t manage to fulfill the role of operating center for Ukrainian gas pipeline system.