(Read the full article on unian.ua)

GTS Ukraine believes that the EU and the European Commission should pay attention to Gazprom’s abuse of a dominant position in the gas market.

The price of gas on the European market has reached a five-year high – 29 euros per MWh due to the monopoly actions of Russia’s Gazprom.

This was announced by the head of the GTS Operator of Ukraine Serhiy Makogon on Facebook, UNIAN reported.

“The price of gas on European sites has reached almost 29 euros per MWh. This is the maximum price for the last 4-5 years. Many factors have influenced this increase in prices, but the main question is how to reduce the price of gas,” he wrote.

According to Makogon, the only possible market way is to increase supply. Since Gazprom has a monopoly on exports from Russia, only it theoretically has the ability to increase supplies from Russia.

At present, Ukraine constantly offers the market 62 million cubic meters per day of additional capacity, but Gazprom is in no hurry to use it. And this is quite understandable – why make an effort to reduce the price at which you sell gas? For me, this is an abuse of Gazprom dominant position in the EU gas market and the European Commission should pay attention to this, “- said the head of the company” GTS Operator of Ukraine “.

At the same time, Makogon believes that the completion of Nord Stream-2 will not solve the existing problem, because the issue is not the lack of transit capacity, but the monopoly of a particular supplier over such capacity – Gazprom. This gives him the opportunity to dictate his rules of the game and impose his pricing policy.

“Therefore, the EU needs to work on increasing not supply routes from one supplier, but gas sources. This includes enabling other Russian and Central Asian gas suppliers to transport gas to the EU through the GTS of Russia and Ukraine,” said the head of GTS Operator. .

Another step, in his opinion, could be the creation of a strategic EU gas reserve, including in Ukrainian gas storage facilities, which are the largest in Europe. Strategic oil reserves in both the United States and the European Union have already proven effective in combating significant fluctuations in oil prices.

Makogon added that at one time the idea of ​​creating a consortium to manage not only the GTS, but also the underground storage facility was considered.

“The role of gas will increase in the coming years due to the green transition, so we need to think about energy security in the gas sector,” Makogon said.