Ukraine assessed the potential of cooperation with the EU in the field of biomethane production
3 March 2025 11:49
The Green Deal Ukraine project and the Ukrainian Climate Office, supported by the German Society for International Cooperation, have explored the prospects for cooperation between Ukraine and the EU in the field of biomethane. This is reported by the specialized publication Expro, according to
As the study states, the biomethane industry in Ukraine is still at an early stage of development and one of the main obstacles to its development is the lack of competitiveness compared to subsidized natural gas. The development of the industry is also limited by the lack of domestic demand for biomethane in Ukraine.
What biomethane projects are operating in the country
The first biomethane investment projects appeared in Ukraine in 2022. According to Green Deal Ukraine, in April 2023, Gals Agro produced the first commercial biomethane in Ukraine at its plant in Chernihiv region. The second plant, owned by VITAGRO, started operating in early 2024.
As of July 2024, the Bioenergy Association of Ukraine reported to the Ministry of Finance that six companies in Ukraine were ready to become biomethane producers with plans to export to the EU. Of these, five aimed to pump biomethane into gas pipelines, and one planned to produce biogas for transportation by truck.
Problems of industry development
The Green Deal Ukraine identifies the following key barriers to industry development
– strategic (lack of an official government strategy; lack of coordination at the ministerial level)
– economic (state subsidies for natural gas; lack of focus on the development of biogas production),
– regulatory (connection procedures; lack of simplified procedures in wartime; monitoring and quality standards; export procedures).
The first Ukrainian biogas has already been delivered to Europe
In early February of this year, the first pipeline supply of biomethane was made between Ukraine and the European Union. The volume of the first biogas supply to the EU amounted to 67 thousand cubic meters.
Oril Leader, a private joint-stock company that is part of the MHP agro-industrial holding and has a biomethane plant in Dnipropetrovs’k region, exported 27.4 thousand cubic meters of biomethane to the EU on February 11, becoming the second Ukrainian company to export biomethane.
In addition to these two companies, Gals Agro produces biomethane and is already pumping it into Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities.
Ukraine is known to have the largest area of agricultural land in Europe, and the raw material for biomethane is organic waste from the agricultural sector. This means that Ukraine has a huge potential for biomethane production and can be an important supplier of green energy in the European market. Biomethane is purified biogas with characteristics similar to natural gas. It can be used for heating, electricity generation, and as a fuel for transportation.
