OREANDA-NEWS. The Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation considers mutually beneficial the terms of a new contract with Ukraine for gas transit to Europe in 2020-2024. Russia is ready to extend the agreement after 2024 if the agreements are successfully implemented. This is stated in an article by Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Alexander Novak.

“As everyone was already convinced at the end of last year, new routes are not an obstacle to the continuation of the transportation of Russian gas through the territory of Ukraine. We have talked about this more than once. It's important that we still heard each other, and we managed to agree on transit with our Ukrainian partners gas for five years from 2020 on mutually beneficial terms. If this cooperation is successful, we may continue it after 2024", he said.

On December 30, 2019, Ukraine and the Russian Federation signed a package agreement on gas transit for 2020-2024 with the possibility of prolonging transit for another 10 years. In 2020, transit through Ukraine will amount to 65 billion cubic meters, as well as 40 billion cubic meters annually from 2021 to 2024.

The new arrangements also provide for the “download or pay” principle, when the transit fee should be made in the amount of reserved capacity, even if the actual pumping turns out to be less.