Naftogaz CEO warns of risks of complete loss of gas transit

MOSCOW, Mar 4 (PRIME) -- Russia-led Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline project will make Ukraine’s gas transport system unclaimed, energy holding Naftogaz Ukrainy CEO Andrei Kobolev told Channel 5 on March 3.

“We will lose entire transit. Because there is also the TurkStream pipeline, which will most likely be built and launched by the end of 2019,” he said.

With the launch of the Nord Stream-2, Ukraine will lose a curbing factor against “Russian aggression,” while the probability of a military conflict will significantly increase.

“This gas pipeline should be analyzed not in terms of money loss, but in terms of a military risk,” Kobolev said.

“We should attract foreign companies to the management of the Ukrainian gas transport system and share incomes and profit with them in exchange for investments, in exchange for an acquisition of a stake, in exchange for support in the West, for energy efficiency, for many things,” he said.

The Nord Stream-2 project envisages construction of two lines of a natural gas pipeline with an annual capacity of up to 55 billion cubic meters, running from the Russian shore to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Russian gas giant Gazprom will implement the project together with Germany’s E.ON and BASF, Royal Dutch Shell, OMV, and France’s Engie.

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