Ukraine's DTEK backs free gas trade with EU after end of heating season

MOSCOW. Jan 25 (Interfax) - Ukraine's DTEK energy holding is hopeful that the gas export ban will be reviewed upon completion of the 2023/24 heating season, the group's CEO Maxim Timchenko said.

"I hope after the second heating season [during the crisis], the time will come to reconsider this issue. Of course, the state must have all capabilities to influence the situation when it sees that the opening of gas exports somehow impacts energy security, the availability of gas in the country," Timchenko told Ukrainian media on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Ukraine cannot afford to live in a state of autarky, he said.

"We are already part of Europe. And prices for electricity, for gas should be in sync with Europe's. We already have it in electricity: when we have a shortage, we import, when we have a surplus, we export. The same principle should apply to the gas market," Timchenko said.

Extracting gas and exporting it to Europe is not a goal in itself for DTEK Group, as a market participant, Timchenko said. On the contrary, the company itself used the opportunity to store gas in Ukraine this year, he said.

"In my opinion, it is a major achievement that three billion cubic meters of European companies' gas were pumped into Ukrainian storage facilities. This is an indicator of trust in our state," Timchenko said.