Natural gas pipelines from Russia to Europe

On 23 December 2008, President Yushchenko said that more than $1 billion was paid by Ukraine to reduce its debt, while a part of the debt was restructured for January–February 2009. Gazprom denied that there is any agreement on debt restructuring. Gazprom's spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said that Gazprom remained committed to cut supplies to Ukraine on 1 January 2009 if Ukraine does not redeem its $1.67 billion debt for gas supplies and $450 million in fines. On 30 December 2008, Naftohaz paid $1.522 billion transferring money to RosUkrEnergo. RosUkrEnergo confirmed that it had received this payment yet saying that Naftohaz still owes $600 million in fines. Gazprom said it did not receive any payment because of the days off in the banking system. At the same time, Gazprom accused Naftohaz on blackmailing, saying it had received a letter from Naftohaz threatening with confiscating gas supplied to the EU through Ukraine. Ukrainian side denied this confirming that Ukraine guarantees the technical, secure, reliable and uninterrupted transportation of Russian natural gas to European countries through its territory. Negotiations between Gazprom and Naftohaz were interrupted on 31 December 2008. According to Ukrainian President's representative for energy issues Bohdan Sokolovsky, the negotiations were interrupted at Gazprom's initiative. Ukraine proposes that the price of natural gas for Ukraine will increase by $21.5 to $201 per 1,000 cubic meters, and the transit fee by $0.3 to $2 per 1,000 cubic meters pumped along 100 kilometres (62 mi). Gazprom proposed that Naftohaz should buy its natural gas at $250 per 1,000 cubic meters starting from 2009. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that the $250 per 1000 cubic meters price was a "humanitarian gesture" to Ukraine considering that Russia buys gas from Central Asia for $340 and that the European market price is $500 per 1000 cubic meters. Ukraine wanted the gas price to be $201 per 1000 cubic meters. Later, Naftogaz said it was ready to pay $235. Gas deliveries for Ukraine were fully cut on 1 January 2009 at 10:00 MSK. The volume of gas pumped to Ukraine was reduced by 90 million cubic meters per day, while deliveries for transit to the EU continued at a volume of 300 million cubic meters per day. On Vesti-24 TV, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said having an impression that there are political forces in Ukraine that are very much interested in having a gas conflict between two countries and he assured that Gazprom will continue delivering gas to Europe in full. Gazprom's spokesman Sergei Kupriaynov said on 1 January 2009 that Gazprom is ready to resume talks with Ukraine, but the Ukrainian side has not been willing to negotiate. According to Kupriaynov, representatives of Naftohaz had received direct instructions not to sign any document.

In a joint statement by President Yushchenko and Prime Minister Tymoshenko, published on 1 January 2009, Ukraine guaranteed the uninterrupted transit of Russian natural gas to European countries and at the same time guaranteed that Ukrainian citizens will be provided with gas in a full volume, claiming "Ukraine has enough gas in its storages, which will guarantee meeting of internal needs during a rather long period of time". The statement also noted that the Russian side offers keeping the transit fee of $1.70 per 1,000 cubic meters over a distance of 100 kilometres (62 mi), which is according to the statement less than a half of the average European rate. This transit rate makes practically impossible maintenance of the gas transportation system in a proper technical condition. At the same time Gazprom accused Naftohaz of blocking the activity of RosUkrEnergo while not allowing them to take up from underground storages the gas that must be used for export operations. President Yushchenko sent a letter to President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso proposing to him to make the European Union involved in the settlement of the Ukrainian–Russian gas dispute. According to Interfax-Ukraine, the EU came up earlier with the initiative itself to take part in the energy dialog. A Ukrainian delegation including Fuel and Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan, Deputy Foreign Minister Konstantin Yeliseev, President's representative for energy issues Bohdan Sokolovsky, and Deputy Head of Naftohaz Vadym Chuprun visited Czech Republic as the EU Presidency and a number of the European Union other member states to hold consultations on natural gas issues in the first week of 2009.

On 2 January 2009 Gazprom accused Ukraine of stealing gas; according to Naftohaz it is not stealing gas but removing gas for technical purposes, in order to ensure the transit of Russian exports and diverting some gas to maintain pressure in the pipeline network. According to Naftohaz: "A lack of technical agreement between Naftohaz Ukrainy and Gazprom will make it impossible to determine directions and technical volume for equally distributing transit gas among EU member countries". On 4 January 2009 both RosUkrEnergo (against Ukraine) and Gazprom (against Naftohaz) filed in a lawsuits with the Stockholm Tribunal of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (Sweden). Ukraine has also filed in lawsuits there. According to Naftohaz RosUkrEnergo owes the company $40 million for services on transportation of natural gas.

According to Naftohaz on January 4, 2009, Gazprom had not paid Ukraine the due transit fee for transporting gas supplies to Europe (through Ukraine) since 1 January 2009. According to Gazprom the price it pays for gas transit (through Ukraine) is based on a long-term contract which expires at the end of 2013 and which Naftohaz and Gazprom signed on June 21, 2002.

On January 5, 2009 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin instructed Gazprom's Alexei Miller to cut supplies sent via Ukraine to Europe; Putin elaborated that the gas flow should be reduced by the amount Ukraine had allegedly taken since deliveries ended on 1 January. The Ukraine Government repeated its explanation that the cause of the disrupted flow was due to technical problems.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

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