Gas in Ukraine will run out before negotiations on its supplies
Moscow – Kyiv, October 23 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Stamm) – Ukraine’s lack of funds to purchase gas and the upcoming change of negotiators on the part of the European Commission may postpone the resolution of the conflict until the end of the year, writes Kommersant. At the same time, Ukraine will only have enough gas for heating until the New Year.
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Gas negotiations between Russia and Ukraine through the mediation of the EU failed again: Brussels could not find $1,6 billion for Kyiv, which it would use to purchase gas from Gazprom on an advance payment basis. European Commissioner Günther Oettinger made it clear that Ukraine must find the money itself, including by using macroeconomic assistance already allocated by the EU, the publication recalls.
Kyiv cites other reasons for the failure of negotiations. According to the head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy Yuriy Prodan, Gazprom refuses to give legal guarantees that the price of supplies until March 31, 2015 will remain unchanged at $385 per thousand cubic meters, and the volume will be at least 4 billion cubic meters. At Gazprom, according to the publication, these requirements are perceived as a ploy that could weaken the position of the monopoly in the Stockholm arbitration.
According to the newspaper, Kyiv, through the EU, included in the negotiation list a proposal to purchase gas from Russia through a European intermediary. Kyiv fears, in particular, that Gazprom will not flexibly increase supplies in the event of sudden temperature changes, and this is fraught with interruptions in gas supply in Ukraine.
But, although Russian-Ukrainian gas relations have almost always been based on mediation schemes, this time Gazprom was openly hostile to the idea of a mediator. The head of the monopoly, Alexey Miller, emphasized that Gazprom will not sell gas to a European company on the border between Russia and Ukraine.
The next round of negotiations is scheduled for October 29, while on October 31, Günther Oettinger, who has been involved in gas issues for about ten years, will transfer the post to the Spaniard Miguel Arias Cañete. According to Kommersant’s interlocutors, he will need time to get up to speed on the matter, which could further delay the negotiations. At the same time, for Naftogaz, the heating season has de facto already begun: on October 20, the volume of gas withdrawal from underground storage facilities exceeded injection for the first time. Current reserves in storage allow Ukraine to feel comfortable only until the New Year.
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