Russia is preparing a new gas crisis to put pressure on the EU – “Naftogaz”

Saturday, 17 December 2016 09:33
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"Naftogaz of Ukraine" considers the statement of JSC "Gazprom" on the possibility of disruption of gas supply to the EU to be a preparation for new gas crisis, that could be initiated by Russia in January - February 2017, to advance its interests in relations with the EU. The Russian side will try to blame Ukraine in the gas crisis, similar to 2006 and 2009 years. Recent public statements of the Russian side and the unwillingness of Gazprom to sign additional standard agreement with Naftogaz, which had been already signed three times, are a clear indification of this.

Naftogaz considers the volume of gas available to Ukraine sufficient to ensure reliable gas supplies to Ukrainian consumers during the heating season. Along with this, the position of Gazprom is strange, when on the one hand, it insists that Naftogaz purchase additional volumes of gas from Russia, on the other - refuses to sign an additional standard agreement, which eliminates the risk of procurement fail for the Ukrainian side.

In particular, the standart agreement establishes the obligation for Gazprom to supply gas in full volume prepaid by Naftogaz, not to apply the contested take-or-pay principle, not to count the pre-payment as the payment for unauthorized supplies to Ukrainian occupied territories, to introduce a flexible procedure for pre-payment and ordering of necessary volumes of gas by Naftogaz.

“The Ukrainian side is fully aware of the critical importance of gas supplies from the EU for energy security and the importance of maintaining the support of Ukraine by the Western partners. I emphasize that Naftogaz has never violated its transit obligations. As you know, Gazprom has not provided any evidence of infringement of the contract by Naftogaz in 2006 and 2009, but used artificially created crisis to advance Russian interests. We once again reaffirm our readiness to fulfill our transit obligations in full compliance with the contract”, – commented Chairman of the Board of “Naftogaz” Andrii KOBOLEV.

The artificial crisis provoked by Gazprom, could be used by Russia as the means of pressure on the EU to promote bypassing pipelines or termination of the antitrust investigation, which currently leads the European Commission.

In order to prevent a possible crisis, Ukrainian side asked the European Commission to send immediately a monitoring mission to the entry and exit points of Russian gas to Ukraine's GTS for independent control of the situation.

Also Naftogaz once again drew attention to the Gazprom’s obligation to provide contractual level of pressure by the Russian side in the gas transportation system. The systematic failure of these commitments by Gazprom requires Ukraine to use additional volumes of gas. Ukraine hopes Russia will correct violations on the Russian side of gas transportation system after negotiations with the European Commission.

Source: Naftogaz of Ukraine