| The head of Naftogaz of Ukraine brought a “warm and friendly atmosphere” from Gazprom Naftogaz of Ukraine gave a unique assessment of the attack launched by Gazprom on Monday in the Ukrainian direction. As is known, a source close to the negotiations between the heads of the companies said that since 2006, the Russian monopolist proposed increasing the base gas price for Ukraine to $160 per thousand cubic meters, “presented” Naftogaz with an invoice for payment of 7.8 billion cubic meters of gas, which “ disappeared" in Ukrainian storage facilities, and also announced his intention to completely abandon the gas transport consortium. Yesterday, these theses were repeated to one degree or another by the deputy chairman of the board of Gazprom, Alexander Ryazanov. Naftogaz issued a conciliatory statement yesterday. The company's official press release states that the meeting between the heads of the companies Alexey Ivchenko and Alexey Miller took place “in a warm and friendly atmosphere.” Gazprom promised its Ukrainian colleagues additional gas supplies (up to 5 billion cubic meters) in 2005. And they assured that they would “fulfill contractual obligations for the transit of Russian gas to European countries.”
Naftogaz interprets the issue of raising gas prices to European levels as follows: “The Russian side has made a proposal to switch to paying for services for the transit of Russian gas through the territory of Ukraine in cash,” the company said in a statement. “In turn, the Ukrainian side proposed to follow the terms of the current Agreement on the transit of Russian natural gas through the territory of Ukraine until 2013.” A source in the Ukrainian company explained to Vremya Novostey that Kyiv expects to maintain the barter scheme for the long term. The fact that it was Mr. Ivchenko who initially came up with the idea of switching to monetary compensation for transit (and this topic is closely related to the payment scheme for gas supplies) at the first meeting with Mr. Miller, Naftogaz chose not to comment on.
Accusations of the “loss” of 7.8 billion cubic meters of Gazprom gas from underground storage facilities have not yet been admitted by Naftogaz. “This cannot happen,” says Ivan Diyak, adviser to the head of the company. “After all, accurate measurements of injection and withdrawal of the appropriate volume of gas, according to technology, occur continuously.” However, in this matter, Naftogaz is also committed to a constructive resolution of the problem. “The parties also instructed the working group to work out a mechanism for mutual payments for Russian gas, which was pumped into underground gas storage facilities in Ukraine in previous years,” the press release says.
Mr. Ryazanov explained the technology behind the loss of gas: “This is due to the fact that Ukraine has taken a lot in recent years, but has not pumped in enough quantities, so there is a certain amount of gas that, for technological reasons, cannot be taken from the storage facility. This is a frozen asset. Today we are negotiating to sell this gas to Ukraine, since we have not been able to submit applications for years. The question is price: Gazprom wants to sell at a higher price, and Ukraine wants to buy at a lower price. The question is not easy, because Naftogaz of Ukraine is not such a rich company, but I think we will come to an agreement.”
The concern could not clarify why Gazprom only now discovered the disappearance of a volume of gas exceeding 10% of Ukraine’s annual consumption. Just like the sharp increase in gas supplies to Ukraine last year - instead of about 24 billion cubic meters planned under the intergovernmental agreement, the concern sold more than 34 billion to Naftogaz. Moreover, the entire volume of supplies, according to Gazprom’s annual report, was carried out at a reduced price - $50 per thousand cubic meters. Alexey GRIVACHS, Svetlana STEPANENKO, Kyiv |
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