Brussels, 20/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - Speaking through its prime minister, Mykola Azarov, Ukraine threatened over the weekend to mothball part of its gas transport system in order to cut its losses in the absence of clear confirmation of the volumes of gas to be transported across its territory to Europe. “The Ukrainian gas transportation system's annual capacity is 150 billion cubic metres of gas, including three pipes each having capacity of 50 billion cubic metres, while only about 80 billion cubic metres are pumped through it. Perhaps we should mothball part of it. Why should we be incurring losses?” Azarov said addressing reporters after the Yalta international conference, on Saturday 17 September, in comments reported by the Russian agency, Interfax. “Ukraine needs guarantees of gas volumes to be pumped through its gas transportation system both from the European Union as the consumer and Russia as the supplier”, the head of the Ukrainian government said, stating that the matter had been evoked with European Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Commissioner Stefan Füle. “We will wait, but we should know the prospects”, Azarov said, with reference to the upcoming arrival in Kiev, in October, of European Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger. “Russia, in response to questions about the amount of gas to be pumped through the pipeline, says this issue depends on the EU, while the EU says it cannot give guarantees”', Azarov stressed, calling for “tripartite agreements” between Brussels, Kiev and Moscow. He went on to conclude: “Our prospects are more preferable than any bypassing routes, if only because we have underground gas storage facilities”, he said, specifying that the annual capacity of the Ukrainian gas network can easily be increased to 200 billion cubic metres of gas. (EH/transl.jl)