Energy Community supports certification of Ukraine’s gas transmission system operator

“By an Opinion adopted today under the Third Energy Package, the Secretariat confirmed that the newly established gas transmission system operator of Ukraine, GTSO, is unbundled in line with the requirements from European law,” reads the statement on the Energy Community website.

Certification by the Energy Community means that Ukraine unbundled the gas transmission system from NJSC Naftogaz in accordance with European legislation. Unbundling of Ukraine's gas transmission system from Naftogaz meets all the requirements and, therefore, Russian gas can be transited to Europe via the Ukrainian GTS.

“As a consequence, GTSO will operate as an independent system operator (ISO) as from 1 January 2020,” the statement says.

From January 1, 2020, gas transmission activities will be separated from the structure of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine. Ukraine will get an independent GTSO which will become a counterparty in further transit contracts.

According to Energy and Environmental Protection Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Orzhel, unbundling will be carried out under the ISO (Independent System Operator) model with the transition to OU (Ownership unbundling).

After the unbundling (separation), the ISO model will be transformed into OU from January 1 and thus Naftogaz will lose the ownership of the gas transmission system and the state represented by the Ministry of Finance will become its owner.

Unbundling is the separation of gas transmission (activity of GTS operator) from gas production and supply. It is implemented pursuant to Art. 9 of Directive 2009/73 /EU.

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