Brussels, 15/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - At the request of the Russians, the European Commission has postponed the trilateral ministerial meeting, which was to have been held in Berlin on 20 September between European Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger and the Russian and Ukrainian ministers for energy - Alexander Novak and Yuriy Prodan respectively - in order to try and resolve the gas dispute between Moscow and Kiev. “The Russian party has come back to us and told us that this date does not suit them. We will therefore propose a new date which suits both parties”, said Oettinger's spokesperaon on Monday 15 September.
Two months after the failure of the trilateral talks and the halt to supplies of Russian gas to Ukraine in mid-June, Russians and Ukrainians are to try and come to an agreement - with the mediation of the EU - on a provisional price for Russian gas supplied to Ukraine and on a plan for repaying the Ukrainian debt to Russian gas company Gazprom. The halt to supplies of Russian gas to Ukraine and the tension between the EU and Russia over the Ukrainian crisis provoke fears of disruption to the EU's supplies of Russian gas (nearly half of which transits Ukraine).
Gas flows return to normal. Elsewhere, the Commission announced on Monday that the reverse flows of gas from the EU to Ukraine have returned to normal since the end of last week. “I am happy to announce that the level of gas flows from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine to the EU has been stable in the weekend. That means that after some days [when] there were some imbalances we have come back to normal flows. So there is no interruption of gas flows to the EU”, said Oettinger's spokesperson. The Commission also confirmed the return to normal of reverse gas flows from Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to Ukraine over the weekend.
The spectre of disruption to supplies had hovered over energy circles last week when the Polish gas group PGNiG had spoken of a marked decrease in deliveries of Russian gas to Poland for three days. In June, Gazprom had threatened to reduce its deliveries to the European companies supplying gas to Ukraine in reverse flow so as to compensate for Ukraine being cut off from Russian supplies. Since Russian deliveries were cut off on 16 June, Ukraine has turned to Europe to receive a share of the Russian gas imported by European countries (Poland, Hungary and Slovakia). (EH)