Russia winds down gas supply to Europe via Ukraine as transit deal expires
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Last exports due on New Year’s Day as Europe faces cold snap and higher than usual fall in reserves since September. Europe will receive the last Russian gas sent via Ukraine’s pipelines in the early hours of the new year as the continent braces for a plunge in temperatures that could hasten the drain on reserves of the fossil fuel.
The Russian state energy company, Gazprom, is expected to cut its remaining exports to Europe through Ukraine’s pipelines on New Year’s Day as a gas-transit deal struck between the countries five years ago comes to an end overnight. In the absence of an 11th hour deal, the last volumes of Russian gas to be piped into central Europe via this key route will mark a historic shift after the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in early 2022.
Russia was once the continent’s biggest supplier of gas but it has lost almost all of its EU customers since the war began as buyers across central Europe have turned to the US, Norway and Qatar for their supplies. “This is a moment of geopolitical significance,” said Tom Marzec-Manser, an independent gas market analyst. “The end of the transit deal closes a major gas artery connecting Russia’s gas reserves to Europe and could mean that eastern European countries will import more gas from north-western European markets.”.
The severing of pipeline flows between Russia and Ukraine comes as Kyiv faces increasing pressure to negotiate an end to hostilities amid military setbacks on the eastern front, where soldiers are fighting in freezing conditions, and growing fears that Donald Trump will withdraw US support once he is inaugurated as president on 20 January.
