The Ukrainian and Hungarian gas transport system operators have signed an agreement on guaranteed capacity to transport up to eight million cubic metres of gas per day from Hungary to Ukraine, which will increase the total capacity for imports to 35 million cubic metres per day, the head of the Ukrainian GTS Operator, Serhiy Magogon, has said.

"GTS Operator of Ukraine" and Hungarian GTS operator FGSZ signed an agreement on cooperation to introduce from January 1, 2022 a guaranteed capacity for transportation of natural gas in the direction Hungary - Ukraine. For me personally, the most important thing in this agreement is to enable domestic traders to access gas from the LNG terminal on the island of Krk (Croatia) and, accordingly, diversify the sources of gas supplies to Ukraine,"- Makohon wrote on Facebook.

According to him, the agreement will make it possible to physically transport up to eight million cubic metres of gas from Hungary to Ukraine on a daily basis.

"This is, for example, like the daily volume of gas consumption in Kiev, which is the largest consumer of gas. Together with the available daily capacity from Slovakia (27 million cubic metres), the total volume of guaranteed capacity for gas imports to Ukraine will increase to 35 million cubic metres per day,"- Makohon said.

He added that so far the deal is for a test period of three months. "During this time, we and our Hungarian colleagues plan to agree on and adjust all the technical and operational processes in order to continue it from April 2022 and further increase the guaranteed capacities in this direction,"- Makohon explained.

It will be possible to reserve import capacity in this direction already from December 31 through the RBP platform at daily auctions. The first monthly auction will take place on 17 January.