Active participation in EU joint gas procurement initiative will strengthen energy security of Ukraine and the region: Mykola Kolisnyk

The Ministry of Energy of Ukraine is interested in the active participation of gas companies in the demand aggregation and joint purchasing mechanism (AggregateEU) established by the European Commission within the EU Energy Platform.

This was underlined by Deputy Minister of Energy of Ukraine Mykola Kolisnyk during an online meeting of the EU Energy Platform Steering Board chaired by Vice-President of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič.

“The Energy Platform is another manifestation of solidarity for the whole of Europe and the achievement of energy security,” Mykola Kolisnyk said.

The Deputy Minister spoke about the measures taken to attract companies to participate in the Platform – the results of a roundtable discussion and an official invitation to register and participate in a tender under the AggregateEU mechanism. Mykola Kolisnyk also focused on the financial aspect of Ukrainian companies’ participation in procurement and thanked the Vice-President of the European Commission for his willingness to help solve this issue.

“We have received a positive signal from the EBRD on the request of the Ministry of Energy to lend to Ukrainian gas traders,” Mykola Kolisnyk said, stressing that in the context of full-scale aggression, the possibility of attracting European loans would not only help stabilise the gas market, but also stimulate domestic gas production.

The Deputy Minister also noted that at a meeting of the Central and Eastern Europe regional group, an agreement was reached with the European Commission to place a virtual trading point (VTP) with delivery capabilities on the PRISMA platform.