ERU Trading LLC, the wholly-owned Ukrainian subsidiary of the ERU Corporation (USA) participated in the tender on 28th November for supply to the Ukrainian State-owned pipeline company, UkraTransGaz (UTG).
In early summer, ERU’s Polish supply partner purchased a natural gas delivery to Poland’s LNG facility and arranged the transportation of the gas by pipeline to the Polish-Ukrainian interconnect. ERU Trading LLC purchased this gas at the border and placed it in storage in Ukraine.
Starting in April of this year, the ERU Corporation has had Political Risk Insurance (PRI) from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), an agency of the US Government. This twenty-year contract for PRI with OPIC affords ERU security in the transportation, storage and sale of gas in Ukraine.
The combination of the availability of spot cargo shipment of LNG and OPIC PRI coverage allowed ERU to win one of the ten lots, to supply 135 million cubic meters of gas to UTG over the next seven months. ERU was the only private supplier, with all other lots going to Ukrainian State-owned NAK NaftoGaz. ERU’s lot was the lowest priced lot of the ten, bringing lower costs to UTG and to Ukrainian consumers.
Dale Perry, President of the ERU Corporation noted: “We are proud in our work with our Polish strategic partner to have made the historic, first shipment of LNG to Ukraine and to be delivering this gas to UTG during the winter months. We see this as the first of many such opportunities as we participate in developing energy supply alternatives for the Ukrainian market”.