Will Ukraine lose gas transit because of Turkish Stream and Nord Stream-2?

The Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline project will make Ukraine’s gas transport system unclaimed, energy holding Naftogaz Ukrainy CEO Andrei Kobolev said.

"We will lose entire transit. Because there is also the Turkish Stream pipeline, which will most likely be built and launched by the end of 2019,” he told Channel 5.

According to  Naftogaz Ukrainy CEO, 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," Prime new agency cited him as saying.

"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," Kobolev added.

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.

The executive vice-president of NewTech Services, professor of the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas, Valery Bessel, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that even the launch of both routes at full capacity will not cancel the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine - it is challenged by a completely different factor. "A total capacity of Nord Stream-2 and Turkish Stream is about 130 billion cubic meters of gas per year, and the Ukrainian gas transportation system is designed to pump 180 billion cubic meters a year. However, it will cease to be in demand for another reason — first, its operation requires additional investments, because it is a very old system which needs to be repaired. Therefore, the gas transmission system through Belarus, launched in 2006, as well as Nord Stream and Turkish Stream are a priority above the Ukrainian route," he explained, adding that with the growth of European purchases, Ukraine's transit of Russian gas will be preserved at least for a while.

"But there is one more reason - a political one. We have no idea what will happen in Ukraine tomorrow. Gas transit is a business, and people prefer to do business in a stable situation. No one wants to take risks. If we manage to defend our business interests, without being in the center of constant scandals all the time, without losing gas in the transit process, the Ukrainian route will be preserved. Gazprom is not a political organization, its task is to extract and sell gas. If the format of the transaction is changed and the gas will be bought by Europeans at the Russian-Ukrainian border, Gazprom will agree to it," Valery Bessel stressed.