The Ukrainian residential gas sector: a market untapped

Working paper

Ukraine’s residential and district heating sectors epitomise a well-known set of problems faced in former Soviet countries: outworn infrastructure, heavily subsidised pricing structures and inefficient consumption. This paper seeks to ascertain the potential of reforms that have now begun, focused on bringing prices to import price parity. It provides estimates of the potential gas savings both from price reform and from other efficiency measures (infrastructure investment, etc). For readers in Europe, the paper is of interest for the insights it provides into a market that, while having contracted sharply in recent years, is still among the continent’s largest, and as a result of the start-up of “reverse flow” trading – bringing gas into Ukraine across its western border – is accessible to European market players. For readers in the former Soviet countries, the paper may also be of interest for what it says about the effect of reforms on consumption, on state and gas sector finances and their potential for energy policy.

Authors: Rozwałka, P; Tordengren, H

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford Institute for Energy Studies
• Series: OIES paper
• Publication date: 2016-07-15
• Paper number: NG 109
• Keywords: ‘reverse flow’; NG 109; gas prices; European Commission; gas markets; Energy Union; energy efficiency; gas demand; OIES; Gazprom
• Subjects: Energy policy; Energy security