Another country that depended on gas transit through Ukraine was Hungary, but for it this dependence was not critical.
As Alexander Frolov, Deputy Director General of the Institute of National Energy, explained to TASS, Hungary receives gas for its own consumption primarily through the Turkish Stream, but since the cessation of direct supplies from Russia to Austria, it has been buying some gas through the Ukrainian corridor in order to resell it to the Austrian company OMV.
Despite some gloomy forecasts, immediately after the cessation of Ukrainian transit, gas prices in Europe rose slightly. However, over the past few months, as noted by Evangelos Mytileneos, director of the Greek industrial and energy company Metlen Energy & Metals, the cost of "blue fuel" at the Dutch gas hub TTF has increased from 30 to 50 euros per megawatt-hour.
Thus, given the volume of gas imports to Europe of 500 taiwan mobile database billion cubic meters, a price increase of 20 euros, according to the expert’s calculations, will lead to a loss of 100 billion euros for the European Union.
How the halt of gas transit through Ukraine affected Moldova and Transnistria
According to experts, it is not the EU countries that will find themselves in the most difficult situation after the termination of Ukrainian gas transit, but Moldova and especially Transnistria - these countries have virtually no alternative to gas supplies from Russia through the territory of Ukraine.
"There is only one direct gas pipeline from Romania: Iasi-Ungheni-Chisinau, with a capacity of 1.5 billion cubic meters per year. Even at maximum capacity, which is still far from being reached, it can only cover about 50% of Moldova's normal annual consumption. All other alternatives are associated with transit through Ukraine, including the use of the old Trans-Balkan gas pipeline in reverse mode (until 2020, Gazprom transported gas to Turkey and the Balkan countries through it)," Alexey Belogoryev told TASS.
According to the expert, for Moldova, stopping Ukrainian gas transit even for a week means an unprecedented general energy crisis.