Trilateral monitoring agreement restores Gazprom’s gas supplies to frozen Europe
MOSCOW - With the removal of the questionable appendix added unilaterally by Kiev to the trilateral agreement on gas monitoring, the last legal obstacle to the restoration of gas supplies, Gazprom resumed gas supplies, pumping 76mln.cub.meters via Ukraine to Europe, today at 10 am Moscow time, as scheduled in the agreement.
The trilateral monitoring team of independent observers, comprising Gazprom, Naftogaz, EU officials and experts from the European gas industry, is to ensure that Russia’s Europe-bound gas deliveries is not siphoned off again by Ukraine while on its way to customers. “In accordance with the signed agreement, Gazprom has resumed gas supplies to its European consumers that were halted by Ukraine’s actions,” the gas giant said in an official statement. And citing contractual obligations, the gas giant said 62.7mln.cub.meters of the first shipment will go through the Orlovka gas station to the Balkans, while 13.9mln. cub.meters will go to Moldavia.
Prior to the resumption of deliveries, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller briefed Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on his plans of actions, including the measures to be taken in case Kiev resorts to illegal siphoning of the export-bound gas for what it calls ‘technological requirements’ for transiting the Russian gas through its territory to foreign consumers. “In case of illegal siphoning, we shall reduce the daily volume of export by the same amount of the stolen gas. This is because the volume of Russian gas at the entrance to and exit from Ukraine should be the exactly same,” Miller said, noting that this position has been brought to the attention of the EU officials.
Commenting on Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko’s statement on her readiness to use parts of the Gazprom’s export-bound gas for meeting the ‘technological requirements,’ Gazprom noted that Kiev needs to understand that such statements and actions will again create a crisis situation with the transit of Russian gas to the European consumers. “The provision of gas for technological needs is the sole responsibility of transiting party pursuant to the existing contract. If Naftogas is not able to secure own needs in technological gas from its own resources, it has to purchase it and not take it off from transiting deliveries,” Gazprom official spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said. “Naftogas may buy this gas from Gazprom as well as from other importers of Russian gas transiting Ukraine or from any international gas supplier.”
PS: A bigger report on this issue will be published in the print version of the February edition of The Russia Corporate World.
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