Brussels, 04/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 4 June, Russian gas company Gazprom and its Ukrainian partner Naftogaz continued their discussions in Berlin to try and settle their dispute.
“The discussions are continuing today following a two-party model because the Russian party has refused to hold them in a three-party format”, said Ukraine's Minister for Energy Yuriy Prodan, as reported by Russian media. The discussions are due to continue until 9 June, he added. This is the date of the deadline set by Russia for Ukraine to settle its gas bill.
On Monday evening, European Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger, who is mediating in this issue, announced that the CEOs of Gazprom and Naftogaz had agreed to study a plan enabling Ukraine to pay off its gas debt and to secure its supplies of Russian gas until June 2015.
“It's a question of finding an agreement on the payment of the arrears [of the Ukrainian debt], on a fair price of Russian gas for Ukraine and on the modernisation of the Ukrainian gas pipeline system”, said European Commission President José Manuel Barroso before the opening of the G7 summit.
Ukraine wants a change to its 2009 contract conditions which bind it to buying a determined volume of Russian gas at US$485 per 1,000m3. At the end of 2013, Russia reviewed this price downwards to US$268.50 per 1,000m3, before putting it up again after former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was deposed. Oettinger is trying to have the Russian and Ukrainian parties agree on a median price. The average price Gazrpom is paid by its European customers is around US$370 per 1,000m3.
“We are looking forward to completing the negotiations with Gazprom this week. If there is no agreement, we will turn to the commercial arbitration court in Stockholm”, Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told the Ukrainian Parliament on Tuesday. “We know that it will be difficult to reach US$268 but we will never accept US$500”, he warned (our translation throughout). (EH)