Russia resumes gas supply to Romania via Ukraine
The logo of Gazprom company is seen at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Saint Petersburg, Russia, June 2, 2021. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
KYIV, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Russia has resumed natural gas supply to Romania through the Ukrainian gas transit system, Ukrainian state gas transit operator TSOUA said on Wednesday.
Russia's Gazprom suspended gas transit to Romania via Ukraine in April last year and had since supplied gas via the Turkish pipeline.
TSOUA said in a report a total of 152 million cubic meters of gas would be transported to Romania in January.
The logo of Gazprom company is seen at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Saint Petersburg, Russia, June 2, 2021. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
Last week, the operator said the volume of Russian gas transported via Ukraine to Europe fell 25% in 2021, reducing a major revenue stream for Ukraine's struggling economy at a time of heightened tensions with Russia.
Relations between Kyiv and Moscow plummeted after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the outbreak of war in eastern Ukraine. Moscow has also been developing other routes for transporting gas to Europe, threatening a revenue stream for Ukraine that totalled $2 billion in 2020.
Kyiv has accused Russia of cutting gas supplies via Ukraine to drive up prices and put pressure on the European Union to certify another pipeline - Nord Stream 2, which is ready to pump Russian gas to Europe bypassing Ukraine.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin has denied that Russia has sought to inflate prices and says Nord Stream 2 can help to calm markets by increasing supplies.