Without Compromise: Can Ukraine power Europe after the end of Russian gas transit?

Since the Soviet times, Ukraine's importance for European energy came mostly from transporting Russian gas.

And now that this has essentially ended, is there a way for Ukraine to reinvent itself within Europe's energy system?

Certainly.

You're absolutely right.

In the 80s, 90s, Ukraine was carrying most of the gas that ended up, the Russian gas that ended up in Europe.

Of course, over the years and certainly in the last five years, things have changed substantially.

Ukraine has lost its transit.

And now the question is what to do with this huge transmission system which it inherited.

And despite the fact that Ukraine is fighting a war, we now see real efforts to encourage companies both in the West as well as in the South to use this transport system as well as its storage facilities.

So what we see right now is Ukraine becoming a bridge between the North and the South.

I'll give you a few examples.

Because the Russian gas has been lost in Ukraine and from next year it will be phased out altogether, many companies are now looking to import liquefied natural gas or LNG.

And this LNG comes in either via the north, we're talking here terminals in Lithuania, in Poland, or via the south, Greece or Croatia.

In recent months, we have seen companies importing LNG either in the south, putting it very briefly, injecting it very briefly in storage in Ukraine and then taking it out at short notice when needed to cover demand elsewhere in the region.

So as I said, Ukraine is really becoming a sort of bridge, a sort of if you want, a parking space for gas, where gas is parked and then taken out to cover these needs.

Because obviously transport costs would be quite high and it doesn't make sense to transport this gas.

So it's much easier to play with these locations, to play with these to play with the infrastructure itself and ensure flexibility for the market.