On Wednesday 11 April, Ukraine rejected the suggestion by Russian gas group Gazprom that gas flows through that country to the EU may be reduced and called for far greater volumes.
“Our country will not agree such volumes”, Ukrainian Energy Minister Igor Nassalyk is reported by Interfax as saying, referring to the 10 to 15 billion cubic metres per year that Gazprom boss Alexei Miller had spoken of the previous day.
“This is of no use to Ukraine”, Nassalyk went on to say, stating that, for the transit of gas towards the EU to be viable for Ukraine, the minimum annual volume would be 40 billion cubic metres.
In response to the implicit call by German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the flow of Russian gas through Ukraine to be maintained alongside the flows through the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines linking Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea, Gazprom said on Tuesday 10 April that that it would maintain the transit conditional on reduced volumes and a viable contract (see EUROPE 11999).
On Wednesday, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak assured European Commission Vice-President with responsibility for the Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič of Russia’s readiness to continue uninterrupted gas supply to Europe via Ukraine after 2019.
The two, Šefčovič and Novak, agreed to hold a bilateral meeting at a date to be agreed later, the Russian Energy Ministry reported.
According to Ukrainian figures, 93.5 billion cubic metres of gas flowed through Ukraine to the EU in 2017, an increase of 13.7% on 2016. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)