Brussels, 12/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - Russian media report that Ukraine's Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn has said that Ukraine wants to negotiate a new memorandum of understanding on its supply of Russian gas in order to secure its supplies for April to September once the 2015-16 winter package has run out at the end of March. With this in mind, Kiev is looking forward to the visit of European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic in March, Demchyshyn said.
“We will talk about the second and third quarters. The Russians will most probably argue that we are not buying (from Gazprom) at the moment and there is no sense such a discussion will take place (…) I believe it (the gas agreement) must be extended because it will give us an opportunity to control deliveries and ask European partners to interfere in an emergency situation”, Demchyshyn stated, adding that the current volatility of gas prices would make a discussion on an arrangement for Russian gas supply in the autumn (October-December) premature.
Kiev forecasts that Ukrainian reserves of gas will be around 9 billion cubic metres at the end of the heating season in April. “Ukraine did not need to buy Russian gas this heating season. There are big chances we will not need it next year either”, Demchyshyn said.
In the throes of a permanent gas dispute, Russia and Ukraine agreed, under EU mediation at the end of September 2015, on a memorandum of understanding running until the end of March 2016 for supplies of Russian gas to Ukraine for winter 2015-16 (see EUROPE 11398). However, Ukraine stopped all purchases from Russia at the end of November and obtained its supplies from European countries.
“At this stage, the Russian energy minister (Alexander Novak) does not see any reason to resume these discussions. The winter package is valid until the end of March. That is why it would (only) be possible to resume the trilateral talks at the end of March. The price of gas after 31 March will be coordinated directly by Gazprom and Naftogaz (Ed: the Russian and Ukrainian gas companies respectively)”, the Russian ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, is reported as saying by Russian news agency Ria Novosti on 11 February.
“The European Commission is positive about an invitation (from Kiev) to act as the honest broker in talks between Ukraine and Russia on a new gas transit contract (…) But we need to see if we can explore such possibilities before the Stockholm arbitrage adopts its ruling” on the dispute between Gazprom and Naftogaz, Sefcovic said, as reported by European media platform Euractiv on 11 February.
The verdict of the Stockholm arbitration court on the complaint Gazprom lodged in June 2014 on Naftogaz's payment arrears is not expected before the end of 2016. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)