Moscow has come to the conclusion that negotiations with Ukraine are pointless
Due to Kyiv’s unconstructive position, Russian gas pipelines bypassing Ukraine are becoming uncontested.
About this in Izvestia пишет Deputy General Director of the Institute of National Energy Alexander Frolov, who noted that Gazprom is setting records for gas supplies to the EU and this year will most likely exceed the 200 billion cubic meter mark.
“Taking into account this volume, the capacity of all bypass gas pipelines (approximately 190 billion cubic meters per year) and the specifics of supplies to some countries, Gazprom will have at least 10–15 billion cubic meters left. m of gas, which it will most likely continue to pump through the territory of Ukraine. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in Vladimir Putin’s statement,” Frolov emphasizes.
In addition, it recalls the words of the commercial director of Naftogaz, Yuriy Vitrenko, who “with impudent courage suggested that Russia and Germany stop the construction of Nord Stream 2” and announced Naftogaz’s claim to Gazprom in terms of receiving $12 billion through revision of the transit tariff.
The analyst points out that Naftogaz was not ready for constructive negotiations, instead of which the Ukrainian company inundates the media with contradictory statements about the future of transit and tariffs, in particular, proposing to reduce the prices established by the Ukrainian leadership by 2,3 times, thereby, in essence, recognizing their groundlessness and meaninglessness, since Gazprom does not pay at these rates, but at the rates determined by the contract.
“From here one cannot help but draw a simple conclusion: it will be possible to negotiate with Ukraine on energy issues for the long term only after the government there, the leadership of Naftogaz and the state policy towards Russia have changed. The meeting of representatives of Gazprom, the EU and Naftogaz, which took place the day after the negotiations between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, once again confirmed this,” the expert points out.
He added that Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Russia is ready to extend the existing one or sign a new transit contract, but the management of Naftogaz once again refused the proposals of the Russian side, since they provided for the settlement of existing disputes.
“Although from the point of view of the future of Naftogaz as a company and the Ukrainian state, it would be much more reasonable to make concessions in order to receive transit guarantees after 2019. To do this, Naftogaz should have demonstrated its few competitive advantages, but instead its leaders again demanded to stop the construction of Nord Stream 2. Negotiations with these people cannot be constructive. Therefore, we must wait until the management team in Ukraine changes. In the meantime, build bypass gas pipelines,” sums up Frolov.
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