Russia cuts gas supplies to Ukraine

The new gas war, already saw it coming, began: starting at 10 am local time, the Russian state gas company Gazprom company has introduced, as had warned the regime prepaid gas supplies to Kiev. That is, while Naftogaz, the state company’s neighboring country, do not pay the million debt owed for the fuel, it will not receive more Russian gas. The Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan, announced Monday that the gas supply has been cut, but has guaranteed supply European customers Russian gas to reach them through Ukraine, reports Reuters. If there is not a relatively quick compromise, this situation may influence the supply to Europe: 30% of supplies to the EU come from Russia and half of these passes through Ukrainian territory.

Debt of Gazprom amounts to some $4.458 million and Russia had been warning for months about the impending problem because Ukraine is showing reluctance to pay. After the Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote a letter to European leaders in which he warned of the risks that this situation had to supply gas to other countries of the continent, there were negotiations with the participation of the EU, in Brussels and Kiev, where they continued even Sunday, but without result.

Ukrainian Energy Minister and the head of Naftogaz were unable to agree on the night of Sunday to Monday with his colleague Alexei Miller of Gazprom in talks that were held with the participation of eurocomisario Energy, Günther Oettinger. The commissioner said Monday that Ukraine intends to meet its commitments in terms of gas transit to the EU and has been confident about Russia’s willingness to continue supplying gas to the EU, Reuters reports.

The problem is the price, on which the parties are unable to agree. Gazprom demanded $ 485 per thousand cubic meters of gas after annulling the rebate to ousted government of Viktor Yanukovych, but in the course of negotiations proposed a compromise that involved a rebate of $ 100, 385. Naftogaz, which refused to pay the debt until there was agreement on a new price, said it was willing to pay $ 268, although in the end the proposed $ 326 per thousand cubic meters, which Russia refused to accept.

Gazprom, along with announcing the introduction of the system of prepayment for supplies to Kiev, informed the European Commission that may cause problems in pumping the fuel passing through the territory of Ukraine and is for the countries of the EU, although said he will do all he can to prevent this from happening. In 1999, when Russia turned off the taps, Ukraine opted to stay with some of the gas transited to Europe.

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Posted by Khalil Khan on Jun 17 2014. Filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.