Russia vows swift return of EU gas supplies

Published on Monday 12 January 2009 10:37

RUSSIA today vowed to resume full gas supplies to the European Union as swiftly as possible – and insisted the crisis over shortages was entirely the fault of Ukraine.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, after a last-minute hitch yesterday, Ukraine signed an accord acceptable to Moscow which would mean monitoring teams could soon be deployed to verify resumption of gas flows to EU countries.

Meanwhile, he said, the head of Russia's state gas company Gazprom, Alexey Miller, and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, would both be attending talks this afternoon in Brussels with EU energy ministers to help speed up a return to normal gas services.

Mr Peskov, speaking in a conference call from Moscow to journalists, said: "Moscow has been informed that Ukraine has signed an acceptable agreement. We hope this is the case."

But he warned: "It will take a certain time before the pipelines can begin flowing again with natural gas."

"Gazprom is continuing to do whatever possible to resume transit (of EU-bound gas through Ukraine) in the coming days.

"Right now our representatives, Deputy Prime Minister Sechin and Mr Miller, are on way to Brussels to use the opportunity of the (EU) ministerial meeting to convey once again (the) position of Russian and to discuss ways of resuming the gas flow to European consumers in the coming hours and days".

The dispute between Russia and Ukraine has left a dozen EU countries on reduced Russian gas deliveries – or virtually none in some cases – in the midst of sub-zero temperatures.

Russia turned off the gas tap to Ukraine on New Year's Day, over claims Kiev had not paid its bills.

Russia then claimed Ukraine was siphoning off Europe's supplies to offset its own shortfall. About 80% of Russian gas destined for EU customers goes via Ukraine.

The European Commission has been mediating between Moscow and Kiev over the weekend, but a deal was dashed last night when Ukraine added to the terms of an agreement a declaration insisting it had not got any unpaid gas bills, and had not siphoned off gas bound for the EU.

Today's breakthrough, once confirmed by Russia, drops any such declaration from the agreement to send in monitors to check gas flows as services resume.

Mr Putin's spokesman said: "If it was up to Russia, the gas flow would have never been interrupted. Gazprom never interrupted the fulfilment of its obligations to its European partners.

"Unfortunately transit flow was cut off by Naftogas (Ukrainian gas

company). They simply shut down all the compressing stations, so Gazprom had to discontinue temporarily the shipments.

"Gazprom is ready, willing and insisting on renewing transit as soon as possible.

"We hope the document (signed by Ukraine) turns out to be a proper one. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this is not another game.

"As soon as we are sure the document is proper, and observer teams are in place – they are ready from the Commission side, the Russian side and from our customer companies – gas flow will be renewed. Certainly that will take a technical period, so whatever is necessary to shorten this period will be done.

Responsibility for the crisis certainly lies solely on the Ukrainian side.

Mr Peskov said the declaration Ukraine wanted to add to the "terms of reference" for reopening supplies did not reflect reality: "Ukraine insisted it never illegally siphoned off gas from the transit line, and as you know this was witnessed by observers.

"Ukraine said it had no debts to Russia regarding previous shipments, which was also not the truth because Ukraine still has debts to Gazprom in terms of penalties and the gas shipped in November and December.

He added: "I hope Russia will continue co-operating with the European Commission and our Ukrainian counterparts to use all legal means to ensure the transit of gas without any interruption."

The long term solution was to close Ukrainian debts and draw up a new supply contract between Gazprom and Naftogas – but that was not the EU's problem, Mr Peskov said.

"What is most important for us right now is to renew the flow of gas and secure that flow of gas to avoid a similar situation in future" he insisted.

The message will be welcomed by EU energy ministers later when they consider how to improve Europe's energy supply security in the wake of the crisis.

They are looking at reducing dependence on Russian supplies, which ranges from virtually total in countries such as Bulgaria and Slovakia, to fractional in the UK – while stepping up co-operation on gas storage facilities.